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After all, perhaps, there is reason to doubt if the affection judged to be the Lues Venerea, and at different times so exceedingly prevalent among these people, were really so. Scientific men of the medical profession, know the extreme difficulty there is of deciding, as to the existence of this disease in certain cases. Common observers easily perceive and confidently aver.
This was 330 years before the voyage of Columbus. If this "perilous infirmity of burning" be the disease now denominated the Lues Venerea, the question is solved as to the concern of America in its production.
L. E. D. This root was first brought into Europe by the Spaniards, about the year 1565, with the character of a specific for the cure of the lues venerea, which made its appearance a little before that time, and likewise of several obstinate chronic disorders. Whatever good effects it might have produced in the warmer climates, it proved unsuccessful in this.
But he died within a year afterwards of the lues venerea, which disease has been spread over almost the whole world, as I have seen many infected with it 400 miles beyond Calicut. It is there called pua, and they affirm that it was not seen there till about seventeen years before; yet it is there more grievous and destructive than with us in Italy.
And that the specific medicines, which cure the itch and lues venerea, as brimstone and mercury, act only by increasing the absorption of the matter in the ulcuscles of those diseases, and thence disposing them to heal; which would otherwise continue to spread.
That a mistake exists in the early accounts as to the nature of the disease which was found at Hispaniola by the Spaniards, and by them on their return to Europe communicated to the French and Neapolitans, is very probable from the circumstance mentioned in them, that some vegetable substances, especially guiaicum, were effectual for its cure; since it is most certain, that the Lues Venerea of modern times is not at all destructible by such means, whereas there are several cutaneous affections which may be benefited by them.
Of such a nature are those that present themselves in connexion with contagions, poisoned wounds, the bites of serpents and rabid animals, lues venerea and the like.
A patient suffering from the lues venerea was disciplined by long and severe sweating in a heated tub, which combined with strict abstinence was formerly considered an excellent remedy for the disease. cf. Measure for Measure, Act iii, sc. II: 'Troth, sir, she has eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub. Also Timon of Athens, iv, III: 'Be a whore still' ... p. 279 Jack Ketch. cf.
The lues venerea prevails among the inhabitants of this island; but, instead of expelling the poison by salivation, they drive it out by perspiration, sitting for this purpose in the sun for some hours, by which the pores are opened, giving free vent to the noxious particles of the disease.
The natives are idolaters, and have the lues venerea among them, which is a common distemper in all the islands of this great archipelago.
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