LUES VENEREA. 



elufion of tlie fifteentli century, the confternation which the 

 new diftemper excited may be more eafily conceived than de- 

 picted. The mode in which the malady was moft common- 

 ly communicated, the unrelenting fury with which it pro- 

 ceeded from one order of painful and difgulling fymptoms 

 to another, and above all, the inefiicacy of the feveral me- 

 thods of treatment which were adopted by the phyficians 

 and furgeons of that period, furniihed reaions but too co- 

 gent for regarding it as one of the moft deftruftive fcourges 

 that had ever vifited the human race. See Pearfon on Lues 

 Ven. IntroJuftion. 



The difeafe, however, had not raged long in this quarter 

 of the world, when the efficacy of mercury in curing it 

 ■was afcertaioed. The Arabian phyficians had long been in 

 the habit of applying mercury to the purpofes of medicine. 

 Rhazes, the Arabian author, by whom moll of the oriental 

 practice was communicated to European praftitioners, re- 

 commended an ointment, in which quickfilver was an ingre- 

 dient, for the cure of cutaneous eruptions. It was probably, 

 therefore, from analogy, that Vigo, Berengarius Carpus, 

 Fallopius, and others who praclifed at the time when the 

 venereal diieafe firft made its appearance in Europe, were 

 induced to try th.; effect of mercury in the form of oint- 

 ments and plallers,for the cure of cutaneous complaints pro- 

 ceeding from a fyphilitic caufe. 



That the difeafe was unknown to Europeans before the 

 return of Columbus from America, appears to derive mate- 

 rial confirmation from the contternation, defpair, and igno- 

 rance of the diftemper, which are confefted by ailllie moft 

 learned praAitioners of that time. Many of them at firft refufed 

 to have any thing to do with the unfortunate patients, fome 

 of whom were expelled from human fociety, and compelled 

 to feek refuge in the fields and woods. Fortunately, things 

 did not long go on in this wretched manner. The analogi- 

 cal application of mercury was foon tried, and found Itnking- 

 ly beneficial. Berengarius of Carpi, who was the firft that 

 tried the effefts of mercury in the cure of fyphilis, foon 

 made an ample fortune by the praftice of the fecret, accord- 

 ing to the report of Fallopius. Berengarius and Vigo were 

 almoft the only practitioners who were acquamted with the 

 important difcovery of mercury being a cure for the new and 

 dreadful diftemper, and it was from their fuccefs, and the 

 candid reprefentations of Vigo and Fallopius, that mercury 

 became the accepted and eftabliftied antidote for the venereal 

 difeafe. The old practitioners employed mercury in the form 

 advifed by Rhazes ; they ufed it as an ointment, and, with- 

 out knowing that the mineral was taken into the conftitution 

 by m.eans of the abforbents, they continued the pra('\ice en- 

 tirely from the beneficial confequences demonftrated to them 

 by experience. When patients were afflicted with pains in 

 the bones, the plan of applying mercurial plafters to the 

 parts affefted foon became a cullom. The phyficians and 

 furgeons, at the time when mercury firft began to be ufed 

 for the cure of the lues venerea, were not acquainted with 

 many chemical preparations of that mineral, and indeed, as 

 it was regarded as a poifon when internally taken, exter- 

 nal ointments and plaiters were alone deemed juftifiable. The 

 hydrargyrus nitratus ruber, however, was kn.wn to John de 

 Vigo, who has rc«-ommended it as an application to chan- 

 crous i:lcers. The internal exhibition of mercury was at 

 firft generally condemned ; and fo fearful were practitioners 

 of the effects of this mineral, that even its external employ- 

 ment was conducted with the molt extreme caution. In fadt, 

 the ointment which was at firft ufed only had in its compofi- 

 tion one-fortieth part of qiickfilver ; the proportion was 

 afterwards increafed to one-fourteenth, and laftly, to one- 

 eighth. Befides ointments and plafters, fumigations were 



foon introduced into practice ; for as it was fuppofedthat 

 mercury produced a cure altogether by coming into centaCt 

 with the part affeCted, it was judged necelTary to contrive forae 

 mode of introducing mercury to fores in the throat, and for 

 that purpofe fumigations were adopted. 



At length the chemifts fet themfelves to work in making 

 numerous mercurial preparations, to fome of nhich fuperior 

 efEcacy was imputed. It was as early as the year 1553 that 

 lotions of fublimated mercury were firft employed by An- 

 gerius Ferrerius. Two ounces of it were diffolved in fix 

 pounds of diftilled water. With this mixture the whole 

 body was wafhed and rubbed, excepting the head, breaft, 

 ftomach, and arm-pits ; and this method was continued once, 

 twice, or thrice a day for ten days, according to the ftrength 

 of the patient, and other circumftances. The patient was 

 at the fame time fweated moft profufely ; for fweating was 

 conceived to affift in the cure, becaufe the diftemper was 

 more eafily overcome in the Weft Indies, where diaphoretic 

 means had long been ufed in aid of guaiacum. Quickfilver 

 girdles for the loins and wrifts were alfo in fafhion. The fu- 

 migations were made with mercury extingulftied in turpentine, 

 or elfe with cinnabar blended with inflammable ingredients. 



John de Vigo was the firft who avowed giving mercury in- 

 ternally, about the year 153J. The medicine that he ex- 

 hibited in this manner was the hydi-argj'rus nitratus ruber, 

 which had been previoufly praifed both by Vigo himfelf and 

 Nicholas Maffa, as a moft beneficial application to venersal 

 ulcers. The violent effeCts of this preparation, when admi- 

 niftered internally, foon brought it into difrepute, and then 

 pills of crude mercury came into ufe. 



If, however, the firft employment was generally conduct- 

 ed v^'ith extreme caution and timidity, there were many ex- 

 ceptions, and afterwards, when the profeffion became more 

 familiar with the method, they became of courfe bolder. 

 For we learn that, after a time, the flagrant evils ariCng out 

 of the improvident ufe of the medicine, and the frequent 

 inftances of death from its poifonous aCtion, excited an uni- 

 verfai clamour againft it, and many preferred enduring the dif- 

 eafe to the mercurial remedy. It is no wonder, therefore, that 

 guaiacum, when brought into Europe in 1517, China-root 

 in 1535, farfapariila about the fame time, and faffafras a little 

 afterwards, were received with wonderful appiaufe, as deli- 

 vering the afflicted from a dreaded diftemper, and a more 

 dreaded remedy. (See Foot on Lues Ven. lect. 19.) What 

 degree of merit fuch medicines poflefs, we (hall prefently 

 enquire. 



As foon as it was afcertained that pharmaceutical prepa- 

 rations of mercury might be internally given, without the 

 degree of danger formerly apprehended, myriads cf fecret 

 formulas began to be obtruded upon every town and every 

 country of Europe. Among the^oft famous remedies 

 were the mcrcurli.s dulcis ; the common .£:hiops ; mercu- 

 rius alkalizatus ground with oyfter-ftielLs ; mercurius antithi- 

 ficus with dry balfam of P.ru ; mercurius anufcorbuticus 

 with gum guaiacum ; mercurius duicis with manna ; mercu- 

 rius diureticus with juniper gum ; and mercurius catharticus 

 with fcammony. Afterwards rougher preparations were 

 made ufe of, fuch as mercurius precipitatus albus ; a folu- 

 tion of red precipitate in aquafortis corrcCted, red precipi- 

 tate, turbith mineral, green precipitate, befides numeroirs 

 high founding panacex Even a folution of corrofive fubli- 

 mate, mixed with barley-water, or water-grtiel, was lotig 

 ago execrated as '•' the vile praCtice of London quacks" by 

 our countryman Wifeman. 



With fuch a farrago of mercurial preparations it is hardly 

 to be expected that any regular and rational plan of treat- 

 ment could be purfued by the generality of the old practi- 

 tioners. 



