370 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IJlS. 



that hath the perilous infirmity of burning. These and many more orders were 

 to be strictly observed, or the offenders to be severely punished. Now we are 

 assured there is no other disease that can be communicated by carnal conversa- 

 tion with women, except that which is venereal, as that only is contagious ; 

 and it is evident that the burning was certainly so : for, had it been only some 

 simple ulceration, heat, or inflammation, there would have been no contagion ; 

 and that affecting only the woman, could not be communicated by any venereal 

 congress, and so not infer a necessity of her being comprehended under the 

 restraining article. These orders likewise prove the disease was much more 

 ancient than the date above-mentioned ; because they were only a renewal ot 

 such as had been before established from time immemorial. 



To confirm this further, I find that in the custody of the Bishop of Win- 

 chester, whose palace was situated on the Bank-side, near the stews, was a 

 book written upon vellum, the title of which runs thus : Here hegynne the 

 Ordinances, Rules, and Custumes, as well for the Salvation of Mannes Lif as 

 for to aschewe many myschiefs and Inconvenients that dayley bh lih therefor tofah 

 owte, to be rightfully kept, and due execution of them to be don unto any Personne 

 wythin the same. One of the articles begins thus : de his qui custodiunt 

 mulieres habentes nephandam infirmitatem. It goes on, item. That no stew 

 holder keep noo woman wythin his hous that hath any sycknesse of brenning, but 

 that she be putte out upon the peyne of makeit afyne unto the lord of a hundred 

 shylyngs. This is taken from the original manuscript which was preserv'^ed in 

 the Bishop's Court, supposed to be written about the year 1430. From these 

 orders we may observe the frequency of the distemper at that time ; which, 

 with other inconveniencies, was dayley lik therefor to fall owte: and the great- 

 ness of the penalty, as the value of money then was, that is laid on it, proves 

 it was no trifling or insignificant thing. 



But the bare proof of there having been anciently such a disease as was called 

 the burning may be thought to be insufficient, unless we were perfectly assured 

 what it was, and how it was then described. I shall therefore do it from an 

 unquestionable authority, which is that of John Arden, Esq. who was one of 

 the surgeons to King Richard the 2d, and likewise to King Henry the 4th. In 

 a curious manuscript of his upon vellum, he defines it to be a certain inward 

 heat and excoriation of the urethra ; which description gives us a perfect idea of 

 what we now call a clap ; for frequent dissections of those that laboured under 

 that disease, have made it evident, that their urethra is excoriated by the viru- 

 lency of the matter they receive from the infected woman ; and this excoriation 

 or ulceration is not confined to the ostiola or mouths of the glandulae muscosae, 

 as has been lately thought, but may equally attack any part of the urethra not 



