418 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



SECT. II. 



The French Evil could be communicated to Europe from 

 other Countries of the old Continent, 



TO prove that the French evil could be communica- 

 ted by means of contagion to Europe, from other coun- 

 tries of the fame continent, it is neceflary, but will be 

 alfo fufficient to ftiew that that evil was firft felt in fome 

 of thofe countries, and that they had commerce with 

 Europe before the new world was difcovered. Both of 

 thefe points mall be fully demonftrated. 



Vatablo, Pineda, Calmet, and other authors, have 

 maintained, that among the diftempers with which Job 

 was affli&ed, the French evil was one. This opinion is 

 fo ancient, that as foon as that evil appeared in Italy, 

 fome called it the evil of Job, as Battifla Fulgofio, an 

 author then living, attefts (e). Calmet attempts (/) to 

 prove his opinion with a great deal of erudition ; but as 

 we know nothing of the complaints of Job, except what 

 is mentioned in the facred books, which may eafily be 

 conceived to fpeak of other diftempers then known, or 

 of fome one entirely unknown to us, we can therefore 

 build little on this opinion. 



Andre Thevet, a French geographer (g), and other 

 authors affirm, that the French evil was endemic in the 

 internal provinces of Africa, fituate on both fides of the 

 river Senegal. 



And Cleyer, firfl phyfician of the Dutch colony, in 

 the ifland of Java, fays (/?), that the venereal difeafe 



was 



(e) In a work entitled, Di&a Factaque Memorabilia, lib. i. c. 4. 



(f I Differt. in Morbum Jobi. 



(jr N Cofmographie Univerfelle, liv. 1. cap. II. 



(b) Epift. ad Chrift. Mentzalium. 



