A 
of Plinies Naturall Hiftorie. 
bepainted and beraied with foulefcurfe and filthie fcales,as it would have pitied one at the heart 
to fee them. This contagious difeafe our fathers and aunceftors in times paft never heard of, nor 
knew whatit meant: for the firft time that everit crept into Icalie, was in the daies of Tiber7us 
Claudius \ate Emperour of Rome; even about the middle of his reignesand thar was by the 
meansof a certaine knight or gentleman of Rome borne'at Perufiuim, who being fecretarie or 
241 
clerke unto the treafurer under the Romans in Affa, and giving attendance accordig to his: 
place,chaunced there to beinfected, andfo he brought the difeafe over with him to Rome, But 
will yowheare the ftraunge nature of this foule evill? women were not fubject unto it; 110 more 
were flaves, bafe and poore commoners, nonor citizens of mean ftate and.condition :the grea 
teft gentlemen and thofe of the nobilitie, ic made choile of,arid picked them from among the 
. B eft: very catchingitwas,and foon pafled from one to another,elpecially by the mouth and * by 
- shemeans of akiflewereit never fo fhort:foule and ilifavoured enough was thie difeafe ir felfe, 
butthe skar,remaining after it washealed (for many there wetewho cameundet the Chiturgi- 
ans hand and endured thecure)looked a hundred times worfe: and why 2no way there was to rid 
- -it,but by caufticke medicines or potentiall canteries;and unleffe the fleth were eaten away ro the 
verie bones, it wasnovpoffible to kill and roocir out cleane; but it would revive aiid {pring agaim 
Amid verely there came Phyficians and Chirurgians out of egypt (acountrey aptto breed the 
like difeafes and where they bee common) fuch as profefled:onely the skill in this kind of core; 
who filled their purfes well,and mightily enriched themfelves by their practife at Rome: for well 
knowneitis, that Manilivs Cornutus (late L.:Pretour, and lieutenant-generall forthe ftate’in 
the province of Guienne or Aquitane in Frannce) dealt with one of thefe Aigyptian leeches 
fortobe cured of this difeafe, and agreed to pay him 200000 fefterces forhis paines And.thus 
much of Mentagra. gaol é uiihs 4 esiuieVi Sen ch 
Moreover, what a wonderfull thing is this obferved in thefe newkind of maladies, that many 
times (contrarie tothe courfe of other ficknefies) they come togither in troups; that fome of 
them fhould all on a fuddaine light upona patticular country ;thatthey fhould take to onecex- 
taine member of mans bodie; affaile thofe of fuch an age and no other shave afpight to per- 
fons of this or that qualitie, and {pare the reft: as if they made choife, fome to plague young 
children,others elderfolke; fometo punith none but the rich and mightie, others to be doing 
withthe poore and needy? In our Annals.or Chronicles we flud upon record, Thatwhile Lucius 
Poulusand Q. Marcivs were Cenfors of Rome, the peftilent carbuncle (adifeafe appropriat 
to Provance and Languedocin Fraunce) came firftinto Italie, Of which maladie, there died 
within thecompafle of one yeere (about that verie time when I compiled thisworke and hifto- 
rie of mine) two noble men of Rome and late Confuls, to wit, lalas Rufus and 2. Lecanias 
“f Velocitranfies 
ofculi: tor meas 
ufed to falure 
one another 
by akifle. 
Bajffies : of which two, the former was cut for it by the counfellof unskilfull Phyficians, and * by * Eitherby 
that means loft his life. As for the other, having it upon the chumbe of his left hand, he chaun- 
ced * to prick it himfelfe with a needle; and although the wound was fo fmall,that hardly itcould 
befeene and difcetned, * yet it coft him his life. This carbuncle rifeth ordinarily in the mofthid- 
den and fecret parts of the bodie, and forthe mott part under the tongue: itishard and red in 
manner of the {welling veins calledin Latine Varices: and yetin the head itlooketh blackifhj 
theskinalfo about it feemeth {were and dead :it firetcheth the skin and the flefh in fome fort 
ftiffe, but without any great {welling ;no painearall,no itching, no other fymptome but fleepe, 
wherewith it fo poffefleth the Patients, that in three daies it will make an end of them. Orher- 
whiles it caufeth the partie to fall into a quivering and fhaking as it were for cold,and raifeth cer- 
taine blifters or angtie pimples round about it;and verie feldome caufeth an ague: butlooke 
- whomfoever ittakethto the ftomacke or throat, it quickly difpatcheth and maketh an end 
of them. . 
As touching the white leprofie, called Elephantiafis (according as I have before fhewed) it 
was not f{eenc in Italie before the time of Pompey the Great. This difeafe alfo began for the moft 
part inthe face ,and namely it tookethe nofefirft,where it put forth a little fpecke of pimple no 
bigger thanafmall Lentil; butfoone after, as it {pread farther and ran over the whole bodie, a 
man fhould perceive the skin to be painted and {potted with divers and fundrie colours, and the 
fame uneven, bearing out higher in one place than another,thicke here but thin thete,and hard 
every where;roughalfo, like asif a {curfe or {cab overran it untill inthe end it would growto be 
blackith,bearing downethe fieth flatto the bones, whiles the fingers of the hands, and apr 
ci pet Y ice am bali he 
fome mortiff- 
cation or effu- 
Gon of blond. 
* Pollicé aces 
unpulfa, 
*itfeemeth by 
a gangrene. 
Matt of thefe 
ignes fhew a 
gangrene and 
canker, rather 
than our cate 
buncle, 
