A 
PRACTICAL ESSAY 
ON T If E 
VENEREAL DISEASE. 
TO WHICH ARB SUBJOINED, 
OBSERVATIONS 
ON THE 
CAUSES and CURE 
O F 
tabes dorsalis. 
J. SMYTH, M. D. 
THE TWENTY SIXTH EDIT! ON, 
With Additions and Improvement■sv_ 
LONDON; 
/ 
PRINTED for the AUTHOR, 1792. 
[Price Two Shillings.] A 
PRACTICAL ESSAY 
ON THE 
VENEREAL DISEASE, 
SHEWING 
THE DANGER AND INEFFICACY 
OF THE 
Methods of Cure generally adopted. 
Si vulnus till, monfirata radice vcl herla, 
Ison jieret levins, fugeres radice vel herict 
Projiciente nihil, curarier. 
Horace. 
J. SMYTH, M. D. TO 
CHARLES LUCAS, Efq. M. D. 
S IR, 
OWING, as I do, to your in- 
ftru&ions in a great meafure 
whatever profeflional knowledge I pof- 
fefs (the very limited extent of which 
I am myfelf abundantly confcious of) 
I but make an effort, a feeble one in- 
deed, to difcharge fome part of that 
obligation, in taking the liberty of 
prefixing your name to the following 
two Treatifes. I have only to wifli 
that the return I make were as adequate 
as it is fincere, and that my ideas of 
the maladies I treat, were at once more 
worthy of the public attention and of 
your approbation. 
As I am perfectly acquainted both 
with the value of that approbation, 
and the caution with which you be- 
llow it, I muft not prefume to attri- . o 
VI 
Bute your acceptance of this teftimony 
of my re fped, to any other caufe than 
your defire of encouraging thole, who 
in matters of extreme difficulty and 
importance (of which kind almofl: all 
phyfical enquiries are) have the merit 
of meaning well. To that merit I 
am confcious of having a very lawful 
claim; but to what further diftindtion, 
if any, the following pages may en* 
title me, remains to be determined by 
the public and by you. 
I am, SIR, 
Your moft humble 
And moft obedient fervant, 
J. SMYTH. 
Great Suffolk Street, 
Charing Crofs, ADVERTISEMENT 
TO THE TWENTTFIRST 
BeING to commit to the candour of the 
public, in a Twenty - firft Edition, my ideas 
on tlie nature, characters, and cure of the ma- 
lady, which forms the fubject of the following 
Treatife, 1 can no other wife fo properly Introduce 
them, as by expreffmg, at the entrance of my work 
the gratitude I feel for the diftinguifbed patronage 
with which my labours, in the caufe of humanity, 
have been rewarded by fo large a portion of ray 
countrymen, and during fo long a courfe of 
years. I muft not, indeed, flatter my felt that any 
perfonal confideration entered into the motives of 
preference, to which my medicine owes its pre- 
feht reputation, nor even that the circumftance of 
its being offered to the public by a perfon regularly 
bred to phyfic, who, after ferving a legal appren- 
ticefhip to one of the firft Chymifts in London, had 
the honour of being appointed Surgeon to a Regi- 
ment in his Majefty’s fervicc, and who, when the practical knowledge, acquired in that fituation, 
qualified him to attend with Tome advantage the 
medical leffons of a celebrated Univerfity, re- 
mained there till he took out his degree; I cannot, 
I fay, imagine that any confideration of this fort 
decided the public opinion with regard to the Spe- 
cific Drops: I am fatisfied that the merit of my 
medicine in itfelf firft made it known, and then by 
rapid advances introduced it into univerfal ufe and 
requeft; ftill, however, as the good effeds of the 
public predilection have redounded to me, to me 
the Pleafmg office belongs of making, as I here 
do, my bed acknowledgments to" my generous 
patrons, the public; acknowledgments not more 
Joftlydue on one fide, than willingly and thank- 
fully paid on the other. 
Thofe who compare the prefent Edition with 
any of the preceding ones, will find it to be not 
only a new Edition, but almoft a new work, fo 
confiderable are the alterations and additions to be 
obferved in it. When I firft published this, and 
my other Treatife (on Tabes Dorfalis, &c. which 
alfo I give to the public at prefent, considerably 
altered and augmented, and almoft entirely new) 
jt was at a time when the riling reputation of my 
medicines drew upon me fuch an accumulation o 
practice, as left me no time for any thing but the 
care of my patients. I was forced therefore to be fatisfied with drawing up, in a hafty manner, and 
without much order or method, fuch direflions 
and inftru&ions, as were indifpcnfably neceffary for 
the guidance of my patients during the progrcfs 
of their cure. A continuation of the fame caufc 
produced neoeffarily the fame effect, and my 
Treatifes paffcd through Twenty Editions without 
much alteration or amendment, the indulgence of 
the public excufing the form, in favour of the 
matter. Struck, however, with a confideration of 
the uncertainty of human life, and feeing the ne- 
ceflity of leaving the public, before my deceafe, in 
pofieffion of every thing that might be requifite 
for explaining the properties, afcertaining the 
virtues and extending the good effects of my me- 
dicines, I at laft withdrew myfeif from every 
other avocation, and, as the fruit of my beft exer- 
tions to furnifli the public, with a clear, concife 
and comprehcnfive account of the maladies I 
treat, beg leave to offer the following two Trea- 
ties. The principles I advance are founded upon 
the firmed: bafis, experience *, as fuch they have 
a claim upon the attention of the phiiofopher, the 
refped of the phyfician, and the confidence of the 
patient. With regard to compofition (a ftri<St 
attention to method, and to the clear, unequi- 
vocal expreflion of my meaning only excepted) I 
have been little felicitous, relying upon the X 
reader’s indulgence for thofc inevitable imper-; 
feftions of ftyle, which always, more or lefs, de- 
form the works of writers, the nature of whofc 
fubjed makes them more careful about what they 
fay, than how they fay it. A 
PRACTICAL ESSAY 
ON THE 
VENEREAL DISEASE, &c. 
A MONO thofe who know beft, and confider 
moft impartially, the nature and value of the 
prefents made by the New World to the Old, in 
return, as it were, for the dangers, hardlhips and 
fatigues, through which the inhabitants of the 
one hemifpherc ftruggled to procure for thofe 
of the other the bleffings of religion, civiliza- 
tion, and commerce; among enquirers, I fay 
of this defeription, it has been made a queftion, 
whether the addition of the Venereal Difeafe to 
the catalogue of human calamities, before too 
long, has not more than counterbalanced all the 
advantages derived to us from an intercourfe with 
America ? And indeed with good reafon ,* for 
what proportion is there between imaginary grati- 
fications and real torments? Between an idealfu- 
periority over our happier anccftors in the. poflef- 
fion of a number of luxuries unknown to better 
limes, and the too certain naileries introduced by 
a malady the moft fhocking in its origin, the 
moil: dreadful in its operation, and the moft diffi- 
cult in its cure ? A malady, which, attacking na- 
ture in her moft facred recedes, while it poifons 
the pleafures of prefent generations, intercepts the 
exiftence of poftericy, or condemns fit to an exift- ence worfe than Annihilation itfelf? But whatever 
difference of opinion may prevail on this head, 
there can hardly be any with regard to the excel- 
lence of the medicine that bed removes, or the 
merit of the phyfidan who mod fuccefsfully 
combats a diforder, which, confidered in all its 
circumflances and effedls, feems not lefs defigned 
to evince the ignorance, than to aggravate the 
wretchednefs of mankind. If it be true, as the 
greated orator, and one of the greated phylofo- 
phers of antiquity has afferted, that in no refpedt 
is it permitted to mortals to approach fo nearly to 
the nature and perfections of the divinity, as by 
giving health to mankind ; where can that noble 
triumph be more defervedly earned, than in com- 
bating with effedl the mod malignant, mod adtive 
and mod obftinate of all the enemies the human 
conditution has to encounter with ? No wonder, 
therefore, that for near three hundred years back, 
fince the firft appearance of the Venereal Difeafe 
in Europe, it has lupplied matter for the zeal and 
ingenuity of the mod celebrated profcflbrs of the 
medical art: there are few names of any eminence 
within that period, that arc not to be found in the 
lid of thofe, who, in their endeavours to contri- 
bute towards edablifhing a perfect and unexcep- 
tionable method of cure, have proved either their 
own merit by their (deeds, or the virulence of the 
difoidef by their failure. This is the BoivcfUlyf- 
Jes, in which the candidates for medical fame have 
oftened tried their drength, and oftened returned 
from the trial with no other glory, than that of hav- 
ing wiflied to do mankind a fervice they were un- 
able to perform. All, however, have not failed, at 
lead not totally ; and though they had, that (hould 
not difeourage the man, who, making the good of mankind, the honour of his profeffion, and the ho- 
neft ambition of a well earned reputation, his firft; 
object, knows, that if in purfuits like thele it is glo- 
rious to follow, it is ftill more fo to lead ; and who 
therefore is as much Simulated by the failure of his 
predeceflbrs, as he would have been invited by their 
fuccefs. It was under the full influence of this 
perfuaflon, that the author of the prefect addrefs to 
the public, and inventor of the medicine in it re- 
commended, entered many years fince on the ex- 
ercife of his profeffion ; and being fhortly after in- 
trufted with the care of the health of a confiderable 
body of his Majefty’s forces, he had the bed oppor- 
tunity of trying the efficacy of the different me- 
thods of cure commonly adopted, or of remedy- 
ing their inconveniences, and lupplymg their defi- 
ciences by the fubftitution of a better. That he 
found it ncceffary to attempt the latter, will be 
eafily believed; the candid and liberal, even of 
thofe among the faculty who adhere to the old 
pradice, arc the firft to acknowledge that fuch a 
necefiity exifts; but, independent of their ackow- 
ledgment, a much ftronger proof is found in the 
melancholy experience of a large part of the pub- 
lick, who, fullering much from the difeale, and 
ftill more from the remedy, have no choice but 
immediate death or a life of torments. Upon 
what reafonings and by what experiments, the 
Specifck Drops were dffcovered, improved, and 
brought to their prefent degree of perfection it is 
not neceffary to inform the public; it will be fuf- 
ficient to fay that their excellence refts upon the 
heft of ail teftimonies, indeed the only one that 
can never deceive, and which fpeaks with equal 
force to the ignorant and the learned, the uninter- rflpted experience of fifteen years, during whidf 
they have been tried on different ages, ccnftitu- 
tions, and Texts, in fuch numbers, and with fuch: 
univerfal fuccefs, as Thews abundantly the differ- 
ence between them and thofe (hort lived compofl- 
tions obtruded daily or the public, which require 
only to be tried in order to be condemned. The 
defign therefore of the prefent Treatife, is only 
to give the reader fuch an account of the ori- 
gin, nature, and fymptoms of the different ftages 
of the Venereal Difeafe, as may enable him to de- 
termine, fhould he be unfortunate enough to con- 
' CD 
tradt it, in what degree, and with what probabi- 
lity of danger he is affedted by it and afterwards 
by entering along with him into a comparifon be- 
tween the common modes of cure, and that which 
I recommend, to furnifh him with a Criterion by 
which he may judge of the comparitive excellence 
of each. Obfervatrons on Tabes Dorfalis, gleets 
not merely venereal, feminal weakneffes, barren- 
nefs, impotence, &c. form the fubjedt matter of a 
treatife a-parr. 
With regard to the origin of the Venereal 
Difeafe, the generally received opinion is, that it 
was brought into Europe by the firft difeoverers of 
America, in which quarter of the globe it is fup- 
pofed to have been endemical further back than 
any conjedture can reach ; that after breaking out 
in Spain, it was carried to Naples, in 1494, an<f 
from thence fpread alrnoft inftantaneoufly over 
the reft of Europe. As to its propagation, it can 
only be caught by immediate contadf, nor even 
fo, unlefs the venereal matter is applied in a fluid 
ftate, either to fome part of the body covered with 
a thin fkin, and lubricated with that foft mucous which oozes through all the more tender parts, as 
the parts of generation, nipples, &c. or to a wound 
or ulcer. It may alfo pafs trom a mother to a child ; 
but whether in this cafe, the Justus partakes in 
utero of the infection that pervades the mother’s 
frame, or whether it catches the infection in its 
paffage through the vagina by a fimpie conradf, is 
yet a queftion. Wherever that infection is received, 
there the diforder firft appears ; and as it is much 
oftener contracted by coition than in any other 
way, it follows, that its firft fymptoms muft break 
out in the parts of generation more frequently 
than elfewhere. This is a circumftance, however, 
that makes no difference in the nature of the difeafc, 
which, contradled how or vvherefoever, is in its fit ft 
hate merely local, and requiring but a little time 
to become universal ,* that is, at firft it is confined 
to a particular ipot, the blood remaining uninfedted; 
but in a little time, being taken by abforption into 
the mafs of the blood, it circulates with it, mixes 
with the fevcraifecretions, and taints the whole habit. 
As the cure in the firft inftance is almoft as eafy and 
fafe as it is difficult and dangerous in the fecond • 
thofe whofufpecf chcmfel ves infedted, fhould notlofe 
a moment in applying for relief, efpecially when k 
is confidered that there is a great difference with re- 
fpedt to the degrees of the malignancy in the venereal 
poifon and the aptitude of different conftitmions to 
foment and exalt it. In fome perfons it lies hid a 
long time without producing any fenfible effedls; in 
others it appears in a few days, and difeovers the 
higheft figns of virulency. But many perfons un- 
fortunately there are, who, though never lo fully con- 
vinced of the danger of delay, want either the 
means or the opportunity of applying to a proper 
perfon; for their inftrudlion particularly, the prelent Treatife is intended: and, to anfwer that end infuch 
a manner, as to render, if poffible, the intervention 
of a phyfician unneceffary, I proceed to a minute 
detail of the different fymptoms of all the different 
degrees of the Venereal Difeafe, dividing it, ac- 
cording to the diftindion already fuggefted, into 
the two ftages of local and universal. 
Of venereal affedions, merely local, that which 
generally appears firft, and occurs moft frequently, 
is Gonorrhea * Gonorrhea, is a morbid running, 
taking its rife in an inflammation, and furnifhed by 
an increafcd fecretion from the mucous glands. It 
lometimes takes place in the eyes or nollrils; and 
fometimes, though rarely, in the nut, prepuce, or 
forefkin, or in the labia pudendi: but its general 
feat is the urethra or urinary paffage in both fexes. 
The fymptoms that precede and accompany it, as 
well as the other venereal fymptoms that follow 
it before the infedion is taken into the fyftem, 
are as follow : 
Firfl, in Men. Within a certain fpace after 
coition with an infeded perfon (feidom looner than 
twenty-four hours, or later than five or fix days) a 
ferous or watry humour, but fomewhat gluey, be- 
gins to ooze from the urethra in a fmall quantity, 
and unperceived by the patient. Stains are often 
perceived on the linen, refembling in colour thofe 
caufed by emiffions of the Jemen, and ftiffening 
wherever they fpread, like ftarch. The running 
now almoft glues up the orifice of the urethra, ex- 
citing there at the fame time a fmall degree of 
heat and inflammation. A flight pricking fenfa- 
tion is felt along the canal of the urethra, efpe- 
ciaily upon making water. The urine at firft 
tickles as it pa lies, afterwards fmarts, and at lafl 
* Or rather Blennorhagla, which is a proper name for a 
Clap, though not fo much in ufe. fccms to burn. Painful involuntary ereClions 
become frequent, the running is (harper, more 
abundant and more highly coloured. If you 
fqueeze the urethra, carrying your hand on from 
the root of the yard to the cxtemity of the nut, 
one or more drops of whitifh and vifcous matter 
appear. The difficulty and pain of making water 
increafe, the patient being at the fame time tor- 
mented by an almoft conftant defire of making it. 
If nothing is now done to (lop the progrefs of the 
difeafe, the fymptoms become every moment more 
violent; the perineum (the interval between the 
organs of generation in both fexes and the amisJ 
grows fore to the touch, and accumulations of 
matter are fometimes formed under it. The urine 
cannot now pafs without extreme torture to the 
patient, and while the laft drops of it are fqueezing 
out, a mod acute pain is felt in the bulb of the 
urethra. The frequency of ercCHon inertafes, 
efpecially at night, intercepting the patient’s re- 
pofe, or awaking him when fieeping mod foundly. 
The urethra being contracted, bends the penis 
downward along with it during ereClion; this cur- 
vation of the penis is called chordee, and produces 
intolerable pain. As the acrimony of the dif- 
charge increafes, its colour varies; it was at fird 
whitilh, and is now yellow, greenidi and fome- 
times afh coloured; it is not ’.infrequently dreaked 
with blood, in confequence of an hemorrhage from 
fome of the inflamed parts. The extremity of the 
nut is covered with aroundifli fpot of a livid red, 
accompanied often with a fmall tumour or pimple 
under the orifice or the urethra. The forefidn 
fwells, and being pulled forward by the diortening 
of the franutn or bridle (a confequence of the 
inflammation reaching that part) forms what is called a phymofts; that is, the forefkin being drawn 
over the nut, contrads and tightens, infomuch, 
that it cannot be cafily, perhaps not at all, drawn 
back fo as to uncover the nut. Paraphymojis, 
arifing from inflammation alfo, is in fomc fort 
the contrary of the former fymptom; in it the 
forefkin tightens and comrads behind the nut, 
and cannot be drawn forward to cover it. Thefe 
two fymptoms, and all other inflammations of the 
nut and forefkin, are frequently attended with 
chryftallines. Chryjiallin.es are fmall bladders that 
cover the furface of the nut, refembling the 
blifters raifed on the fkin by the application of 
boiling water, and filled with a tranfparent reddifli 
humour. 
With regard to gonorrhea in women, its fymp- 
toms are pretty much the fame as in men. The 
infedion is generally firfl difeovered by {tains on 
the linen. A final! quantity of vifeous matter 
is difeharged from the part, gluing the Tides and 
labia together. Titillation, frequent prickings, 
and heat of urine follow. As the inflammation 
increafes, the ad of coition becomes painful, the 
urine feems to feald as it pafles, and the matter is 
difeharged in greater quantity, A frequent defirc 
of making water torments the patient, efpecially 
if (he indulges in heating or high fcafoned food. 
The running is of a yellow or greenifh hue, 
purulent, and fometimes ftreaked with blood. 
Small ulcers or cracks appear in the f.ojfa navicu- 
lares, or the interior cavity, and rima magna of 
the pudendum muliebre, which appear on a repara- 
tion of the labia. 
There is a fecond fpeciesof gonorrhea, incident 
to women as well as to men, and called the dry 
gonorrhea. It is both more dangerous and more difficult of cure than the fomer. The fymptoms 
of both are in general the fame, except that in 
the latter there is little or no running from the 
urethra, and confequently no inflammation or pain 
in the nut or forcfldn. And extreme heat and 
difficulty of urine, amounting often to jlrangury 
or total ftoppage, are the ufual attendants on this 
fort of gonorrhea. 
As the Venereal Jlrangury (which occurs in 
both kinds of gonorrhea, but more frequently in 
the dry) differs in forne relpefts from ftrangury 
arifmg from other caufes*, and as it is often fol- 
lowed by confequences that cannot be too carefully 
guarded againft; no defeription of its different 
lymptoms can be too circumftantial or minute. 
It firft betrays itfelf by a difficulty of making 
water not attended with pain, and by an unufual 
diminution of the current or -volume of the urine. 
Inftcad of fpouting forward, and forming an arch 
in its defeent, it falls almoft perpendicularly. 
Sometimes it is difeharged in two feparate ftreams, 
and fometimes thefe two twift as they fall in a 
Spiral form, as it were round an axis. Heat and 
pain, and a frequent defire of making svater follow, 
which torments the patient the more, as fometimes 
he can only void it drop by drop. If the patient 
takes violent exercife, or commits any excefs 
either at table or in bed, a total retention of urine 
takes place, which, if it be not immediately 
removed, is followed by the confequence moft to 
be dreaded, an accumulation ot urine in the 
perineum. This accident, the immediate caufe ot 
which is an erofion of the bladder by fuppuration 
organgrene forming an iffue for the confined urine, 
is preceded by a greater or lefier degree of heat, 
pain and fwelling in the per in a um, and brings along with, or after, it, vomitings, having the fmell 
of (urine, fever, &fc. It is obfervablc, that in 
the Venereal ftrangury, fome patients feel a diffi- 
culty in the emiffion of the femen, though none in 
the evacuation of urine; and others on the con- 
trary, labour under a ftoppage of urine, and arc 
free from any obftrudion of the feminal difeharge. 
Happily for the fair fex, they are little, if at all, 
fubjed to this, the worft attendant on gonorrhea, 
which is almoft intircly confined to the men. 
The other venereal affedions, merely local, 
though not always fo, are fwelled tefticles, buboes, 
ihankers, &c. 
An infedion of the feminal liquor fometimes 
takes place in gonorrhea, it in that cafe extends 
to the tefticles, the organs wherein that liqdor is 
fccreted. This accident is firft announced by a 
greater degree of fenfibility than ufual in the tef- 
ticles, which become hot, and feel heavier than 
ordinary; this is followed by a pain fliooting 
towards the groin, the origin of the fpermatic 
veffels being there. The inflammation reaches 
the cord in which the fpermauck veifels are 
enveloped, and the fwelling, which takes place 
in the tefticles, cncreafes them fometimes to three 
or four times their natural fize. If the aid of 
phyfic is not immediately fought, the fwelling 
degenerates into abfeefs, fiftula, feirrbus, cancer, 
hydrocele, hernia, &c. 
Buboes are inflammatory tumours arifingfrom 
venereal infedion, and excited in the glands of 
different parts of the body. As there is no certain 
criterion by which to diftinguifh thole buboes that 
denote an univerfal infedion from thofe produced 
by a caufe merely local, the fafeft way is to leave 
nothing to conjedure, and to confider every bubo as the mark of a confirmed lues. For the fatis- 
fadion of the patient, however, more than for 
the inftrudion of the praditioner, the divifion of 
buboes into ejjential and fymptomatic is here ex- 
plained. Thofe buboes are called ejjential which 
conftitute the primitive and chief feat of the dif- 
order,as when coition with an infeded perfon is 
followed at firft by no ether fymptom but a bubo ; 
in which cale the difeafe, it is evident, muft be 
merely local. Symptomatick buboes are thofe 
which denote an infedion elfewherc, whether that 
infedion be merely local, (as when the injudicious 
flopping of a gonorrhea, or fuppreflion of a 
fhanker, throws the humour on the glands of the 
groin ■>) or whether it be confirmed and universal, 
as is always the cafe when a bubo appears any 
confiderable time after occafion given to the 
contrading of the difeafe, 
Eflential buboes, and thofe fymptomatick of an 
infedion merely local, affed the glands neareft the 
part through which the infedion has been intro- 
duced. Thus acliiid that fucks an infeded nurfe, 
will be attacked with buboes in the glands of the 
neck or mouth: a nurfe that fuckles an infeded 
infant, will be attacked with buboes in the glands of 
the arm pits ; and if coition be the channel of in- 
fection, the buboes appear in the groins. As buboes 
of the groin occur infinitely oftener than thofe 
a fie Cling any other place, the following defeription 
regards them only ; but that defeription will at 
the fame time, except in a few particulars, agree 
cqally with all the reft. 
Bubo (which the practitioner muft carefully dif- 
tinguifhfrom other inflammations fomewhat fimi- 
lar in appearance, as thofe which anfe from rub- 
bing or ocher external caufes, thofe produced by abfccfs, cancerous matter, pus not venereal, and 
alfo from rupture (is a venereal tumour excited in 
one or other, or both groins of either fex, feldom 
Ids than a pigeon’s egg, often a great deal larger, 
caufing no change in the colour of the fkin, hard 
to rhe touch, exceedingly painful, efpecially when 
it begins to enlarge, and at all times when the 
patient walks or (lands erefl. 
Thofe that are of an oval form and elaftic to 
the touch, and in which the pain is moft violent, 
attended, with confiderabie heat, and a fmarc 
bearing or puliation felt by the patient, are leafl 
dangerous and moft eafy of cure. 
If the pain be moderate, the heat not great, 
and the beating or puliation inconfiderabie; if 
the tumour be rather flat than elevated in form, 
if the mark of the finger prefling on it remain for 
fome little time ; the bubo is of a kind fomewhat 
more dangerous, becaufe left eafy of cure than 
the former. 
But if the bubo be hard and infenfible, without 
pain, heat, or puliation, of a form not oval, but 
irregular, it muft be treated with care and attention 
proportionate to the difficulty of cure (which in 
this fpecies of bubo is extremely great) and to the 
danger of thole confequcnces in which it too fre- 
quently ends, as farrhus, cancer, gangrene, &c. 
Shankers, are fmall venereal ulcers, fometimes 
proceeding from a local, and fometimes from an 
univerfal infedion, which appear, in men, on the 
extremity or crown of the nut, in the canal, gene- 
rally immediately in the orifice of the urethra, 
or the infide or margin of the forefkin,' at the root 
of the bridle, attacking both the nut and the fore- 
fkin at the fame time : in women, they appear on 
the infide of the labia pudendd round the nymph prepuce and caruncul£ myrtiformes: (fmall knots 
or protuberances at the entrance of the vagina.) 
In both fexes, round the circumference of the anus, 
round the paps, on the Tides of the tongue, on the 
infide of the lips, &c. The approach of (hankers 
is announced by a violent itching, which is fol- 
lowed by a pricking fenfation in the part affedted, 
A fmall puftule appears terminating in a point, 
which (hortly grows white and flattens, and then 
opens to give vent to the difcharge of a matter 
more or lefs acrimonious, which, eating into the 
furrounding parts, forms an ulcer, fometimes of 
greater, fometimes of leffer extent and depth. 
Shankers grow fometimes in clufters without 
any feparating interval; at other times they follow 
each other in a flraight line, or in a circle; fome- 
times too they are fewer in number, and entirely 
feparated. 
Some arc of a mild nature, fmall, and almoft 
fupcrficial, their cbTcharge being what the phyfi- 
cians call laudable, their edges neither hard nor 
inflamed, and the bottom of the ulcer being of a 
bright healthy red. Others are more malignant, 
irregular in fhape, rather angular than round, the 
edges of the ulcer being hard, callous, prominent 
and much inflamed, its bottom black, or of a deep 
livid red, and the difeharge famous, purulent and 
corroding. When the feat of the fhanker is within 
the urethra, it produces a running, which might 
be miftaken for gonorrhea, but that it is left copi- 
ous, and that the heat, pain, &c. are confined to 
the extremity of the yard and the part aflefted. 
Shankers, treated improperly, or not in time, 
degenerate often into gangrene or fphacclus; fome- 
tinics, after cure, they leave behind them, and in 
the fpots they occupied, hard callous nodes, which If feparate, arc called tubercles, if contiguous, 
and in a line or circle, feirrhous cords: in this 
laft cafe, they fometimes fo contract and tighten 
the place they furround (the margin of the 
forefkin, vagina in women, anus, &c.) as to caufe 
an habitual phymofis, to render coition difficult 
or impoffible, or to prevent the paffage of the 
fecal matter, unlefs reduced into a liquid ftate 
by clyftcrs. Otherwifc they give no pain, and but 
little trouble but they are always dangerous, as 
they frequently degenerate into cancer. 
Befides thefe, there are venereal cutaneous 
cxcrefcences, wares, &c. of different forms, called by 
different names, and affedling different parts of the 
body, as the crown of the nut, infide of the pre- 
puce, bridle, clitoris, nymph#, orifice of the vagina, 
areoU of the paps, &c. Thofc that occur mofl: 
frequently round the margin of the anus, are long, 
rifing with a fharp edge from the flefh; and in- 
dented like the gills of a cock. OF thefe, fome 
arc foft, others hard and callous, the former gra- 
dually inflame and fuppuratc, the latter generally 
grow cancerous, and, if improperly treated, ter- 
minate often in a fijiula in ano. Of all thefe, 
(hankers, tubure’es, feirrhous cords, excrefcenccs, 
•warts, &c. it is in general to be obferved, that 
they are ofeener caufed by an univerfal than a 
local infedfion. 
Having thus gone through a defcription of ve- 
nereal fymptoms merely local, in a manner, it may 
be hoped, minute and circumftantial enough to 
enable the patient to judge, with a certain degree 
of accuracy, of his own cafe; and having, in favor 
ofthofe whofc fituation and circumftanccs prevent 
them from confulcing a phyfician, endeavoured, as 
far as words can do, to render the intervention of 
one unneceffary : proceed wc next to confider in the fame manner, the fymptoms that denote the 
infection of the whole fyftem. It mull: previously 
be obferved, firft, that any of the former fymp- 
toms, though merely local, when neglected or 
improperly treated, are followed by a confirmed or 
univerfal infedion ; thus abforption fomtftmestakes 
place in a negleded gonorrhea, always in a neg- 
kded lhanker or bubo; thus alfo, the injudicious 
flopping of gonorrhea often, the improper cicatrif- 
ing of lhanker or jbubo always, throw the infection 
into the fyftem : fecondly, that the infection may 
be taken into the blood two ways, immediately by 
the blood itfelf, in its paffage by the confines of 
the part affcded, or through the medium of the 
lymph, the abforbed virus fettling and fermenting 
in the neareft lymphatic glands, and being from 
them conveyed into the blood. The latter is much 
the more frequent channel of infection. 
By whatever channel the infedion gets in, the 
abforption mull have taken place for fome time 
before it produces any perceptible effeds ; this 
time is different, under different circumftances and 
in different conflitutions ; in fome peifons the in- 
fedion remains latent for years, in a few it never 
appears at all, in the greater number it breaks out 
immediately. It is generally obferved, that wo- 
men bear up againft the impreffion of the Vene- 
real Virus for a much longer time than men; but 
that when at laft it breaks loofe, it rages with a 
violence and rapidity feldom known in the other 
fex ; as if it were fated that all the enemies of the 
lovelier part of the creation fhoisld add treachery 
to cruelty, and flatter only to deceive. This cir- 
cumftance added to the dangers of pregnancy, fo 
eaffjy aggravated by the acceffion of any other 
complaint, as well as other infirmities peculiar to women, fiiould warn the female patient not to 
be lulled into fecurity by thefeemingly How ad- 
vances of her complaint: the precept fo important 
in phyfic to all perfons, ofoppofing, or rather pre- 
venting the firft attack of illnef', leems particu- 
larly defigned for this fex in this difeafe. It has 
been already obferved, with regard to the fymp- 
tcms of infection merely local, that they arc many 
of them fometimes, moll of them oftener, the 
fymptoms of an univerfal or confirmed lues. This 
is fo true, that there arc no fymptoms peculiar to 
venereal infection, whether local or univerfal, 
other than thofe already enumerated in the former 
clafs. The fymptoms common to this difeafe, with 
many others, whofe appearance it frequently af- 
fumes, (as leprofy, gout, rheumaiifm, con- 
fumption, &c.) cannot be confidered as properly 
venereal, and therefore, they only demonftrate the 
existence of fyphiiis, when combined with fymp- 
toms unequivocally fyphilitick. All this being 
premifed, how are we to diftinguifh univerfal from 
local infection ? By thefe three unerring marks; 
firft, the union of two or more local fymptoms; 
fecond, the renovation or breaking out airefh of 
one or more local fymptoms •, third, an extraordi- 
nary degree of malignancy in any one local lymp- 
tom ; wherever one or other of thefe marks' is 
found, the exiftcnce of an univerfal infeQion may 
be looked upon as certain. 
Thus: gonorrhea joined to a bubo; {bankers 
accompanied by fwelled tefticles; ulcers or tuber- 
cles, on any of thofe parts already mentioned as 
peculiarlyiubjeQ; to them, along with tetterous or 
feurfy eruptions on other parts of the body ; leave 
no doubt whether the intedlion be local or nniver- 
hi It is evident that the greater the number of thcfe united fymptoms is, the more certain the 
evidence of a confirmed lues mull be. 
Thus, alfo, if after being, or appearing to be 
cured, any local fymptom breaks out afrefh, (whe- 
ther in confequence of an extraordinary degree of 
malignancy id the original infection; or, which 
oftener happens, from the impropriety or inefficacy 
of the treatment adopted) it is in either cafe an in- 
fallible proof that the virus has got into the fyf- 
tem. But it rhuft be obferved that gonorrhea often 
terminates in gleet; but this gleer however ob- 
llinate (and it is frequently fo much fo as to refill 
all the efforts of phyfic) has nothing venereal in 
it, although it originated in a venereal infeftion. 
Laftly, if a local fymptom poffeffes fuch a de- 
gree of malignancy, as, in fp’te of proper treat- 
ment, to grow worfe inftead of better, it may be 
concluded that it proceeds from an univerfai in- 
fection. A fymptom however may, in this as well 
as in many other diforders, be ftubborn or obfti- 
nate, yet not malignant; that is to fay, it may be 
long and difficult of cure, whithout being other- 
wife dangerous : but this is a diftinftion that the- 
ikilful and experienced practitioner only can 
make. 
Having faid thus much, I might clofe this part 
of my fubjeft here, there being no appearance of 
the venereal difeafe, as merely venereal and not 
combined with any other malady, that may not be 
diftinguilhed by attending to the rules juft laid 
down •, but as this Treaafe is defigned to ferve as 
phyfician tp thole who cannot or will not confide 
any other, I fhali go into a more particular and 
minute defeription, as well of the different ftages 
of univerfai lues, as of its fymptoms when com- 
bined with other difeafes. Firft, the feveral difor- ders of the parts of generation increafe, become 
mere malignant or break out afrefh. If the pa- 
tient is afteded with gonorrhea, the difcharge be- 
comes more abundant and more acrimonious, the 
other inflammatory fymptoms increafing in the 
fame proportion. Shankers, ulcers, and excre- 
fcences of every kind, about the genital parts, 
anus, &c. though at firft merely local, and perhaps 
ftiil fo, become more ftubborn when fupported by 
an infeded ftate of the blood. Befides thefe 
fymptoms, excrefcences of different colours, red, 
yellow, livid, purplifli, &c. appear on the (kin, 
particularly on the bread; or between the fhoulders. 
Scurfy eruptions, with hard callous bafes, appear 
in the corners of the mouth, upon the forehead 
and temples, and behind the ears, and from thence 
fpread all over the head, and by degrees over the 
reft of the body. In time thefe puftules are co- 
vered with fc-abs of a tawny yellow hue, and when 
they occupy the hairy part, they deftroy the roots 
of the hair and occafion baldnefs. 
The palms of the hands become dry and 
hot, and are covered with a fcaly feurf; they 
frequently break into ft fibres or cracks, through 
which a thin ichor is difeharged with great 
pain. When the eruption is dried up, the epi- 
dermis generally peals eft' from the fubjacent 
ikin. 
The nails of the fingers and toes become rough, 
uneven and ragged : and at length, inflaming and 
ulcerating about the roots, they ioofen and fail off; 
this is a fymptom rarely met with. 
When the dilbrdcr feizes the mouth, it pro- 
duces little round ftubborn ulcers upon the gums 
and inflde of the lips, or ulcerous puftules on the 
palate. The whole arch of the fauces becomes hot, painful, inflamed and ulcerated; the ulcera- 
tions fpread, and eating deep, communicate to 
the palate bones. The breath becomes intolerably 
offenfive ; the bones of the palate grow carious, 
exfoliate and frequently come quite away, making 
an opening to the nofe. The inflammation gene- 
rally fpreads to the throat, caufing hoarfenefs, 
pain, difficulty of fpeaking and fwallowing, &c. 
When the infedion attacks the nofe, ftinking 
ulcers arife upon one or both aU or Tides of the 
nofe, covered generally with a hard black fcab; 
which comes away in the blowing of the nofe, and 
is followed by a bloody mucus; or elfe, there is 
no fcab at all, but a conftant oozing of a thin 
ftinking Janies. Thefe ulcers fpreading, rot the 
til#, corrode the cartilages, eat through the fpongy 
bones, and Tapping the foundations of the bridge 
of the nofe, it finks, falls in, and leaves be- 
hind it a painful deformity, that can never be 
removed. 
When the infedion is fecretcd in the eyes, in- 
flammation and ulceration take place there as elfe- 
where ; the eyelids become rough and angry, with 
a difeharge of a fharp watery matter: a dimnefs of 
fight is loon felt, and if the complaint is not 
quickly removed, total blindnefs is the inevitable 
confequence. 
The ears are attacked by fimilar inflammatory 
lymptoms when the diforder fettles there; the 
cavity inflames and fuppurates with great pain ; a 
caries of the bones fucceeds; a hiding tingling 
noife precedes a thicknefs of hearing, which is 
followed by a total deafnefs. 
In whatever part of the body the infedion 
reaches the lymphatick glands, it produces in- durated, moveable, drcumfcribed tumors; as iri 
the throat, arm-pits, groin and other parts. 
Thrown on the lungs, it produces tubercles, 
ulcers, &c. and ends in a pulmonary confump- 
tion, the more difficult of cure, becaufe the vene- 
real virus muft be removed before the confump- 
tion. can be attacked with any profpedl of fuccefs. 
Together with thefe fymptoms, and fometimes 
precedent to them, the patient is frequently tor- 
mented with violent acute pains all over the body, • 
but particularly in the head, arms, fhouider- 
blades, fhins, and articulations of the different 
joints, or in the periofleum (thin membrane that 
immediately covers the bones) which often fwells 
and becomes carious, and which is affedted prin- 
cipally in thofe parts where the tendons, or heads 
of the larger mulcles, are ihferted through it into 
the bones. 
Some of thefe pains are wandering and fuper- 
ficial, others fixed and deep, refembling gouty or 
rheu'matick pains fo nearly, that they are fre- 
quently taken for fnch both by patient and phyfi- 
cian, and the word: confequences follow the im- 
proper treatment of them, adopted in confcqucnce 
of that miltake. 
To thefe may be added, the many maladies, 
fometimes originating in the venereal infection, 
and fometimes exifting along with, but indepen- 
dent of it; as pally, nervous tremblings, hcavi- 
nefs of the head, epilepfy, fcrophula, jaundice, 
drcpfy, afthma, heftick or intermitting fevers, 
piles, filtula, &c. befides thofe peculiar to the fair 
lex, as ulcers or fcirrhus of the womb, abortion, 
exclufion of the fcetus half rotten or covered with 
an univerlal eryfipelas. But there being no diforder 
incident to the human body, whofe appearance the Venereal Difeafe does not at different times aff 
fume, it mull be left to the fkill and fagacity of 
thephyfician to make a diftinftion, which nothing 
but a long and confummate ftudy of the art of 
phyfick can enable any one to make. 
After thus furnifhing the patient with rules, by 
which, in all ordinary cafes he may judge with 
lufficient certainty v/hether and how far he is af- 
fefted ; it only remains to lay before him a Abort 
and impartial account of the defeds and excel- 
lencies, as well of the principal remedies and me- 
thods of cure generally adopted, as of the parti- 
cular medicine this Treadle is defigned to recorn-' 
mend, in order that he may be enabled to com- 
pare them together, and choofe that which merits 
a preference. With this, and a few fhort direc- 
tions for the manner of ufing the Specifick Drops, 
I fhall conclude the prefent Treatife. 
When the Venereal Difeafe firft appeared in Eu- 
rope, the fymptorns with which it declared itfclf 
were fo new, fo frightful and anomalous, that 
the phyficians knew not where in the Mate ia 
Medica to learch for the means of oppofing fo 
formidable an enemy. The violence and danger 
of the malady fuggeßed to them, that nothing 
fhort of a remedy equally violent and dangerous 
could refift it with any e iff ft. Which reafoning, 
however erroneous and unphilofophical, was much 
more excufable in them, than the blind and in- 
flexible pertinacy of numbers among their fuc- 
ceffors, who even now, that the diforder is fome- 
what better known, adhere obftinately to che.ufe 
of a mineral fo deliterious, that nothing lefs than 
abfolute and invincible ncceffity can everjuftiiy 
the exhibition of it. I am not to be informed, 
that there are difeafes in which the adminiflration of certain preparations of different poifonous fub- 
ftances is neceffary; I know that cafes fometimes 
occur in which fach a necefficy exifts: and I grant 
of mercury, what I do of arfenick or hemlock, but 
I grant no more; and that is, that when a dlfeafc 
of extreme and imminent danger can be no 
otherwife fafely and effectually removed, it may 
be adminiftered, but, like other poifons, with 
proper precautions. But is this truly the cafe in 
venereal infection ? Is it certain that nature has 
furnifhed us with no other remedy againft this cruel 
malady, but mercury alone ? A full and fatif- 
fadory anlwer to this queftion may be found in 
one fingle conhderation, which is, that that por- 
tion of the human race with whom this dis- 
order is fuppofed to have originated, amongft 
whom at leaft it raged before it broke out in 
Europe; that they, I fay, either are not furnifhed 
■with mercury, or, what amounts to the fame 
thing, are totally unacquainted with the manner 
of thing it. If therefore mercury is neceffary to 
the cure of the Venereal Difeafe, it follows that 
Providence has abandoned one half of the globe, 
to the uncontrouled ravages of a diforder much 
the mod dreadful of all others, when nor dfedually 
oppofed ; a Conclufion fo impious, that it could 
not be admitted tor a moment by any thinking 
perfon, even though we were not in pofleffion of 
undeniable fads proving the contrary. What are 
thefe fads ? In the firft place it is a fad, that the 
Bril difeoverers of America found the population 
of that country fo amazingly great, that in no 
other circumstance did the New World appear to 
differ more from the Old, than in the enormous 
multitude of its inhabitants; which, it is evident 
could never' hare been the cafe, if the Venereal difeafe had raged there from time immemorial 
without oppofition. For let it not be fuppofed 
that the virulence and malignancy of the difeafe 
may, in a courfe of ages, exhauft and wear itfelf 
away, fo as in time to become mild and little 
dangerous, and at laft perhaps totally difappear. 
This improbable conjedure, advanced by a French 
phyfician of fome reputation, has been the more 
readily adopted by the exclufive partifans of mer- 
cury, becaufe they thought that the mitigation of 
the venereal virus fuppofed already to have taken 
place in Europe could be atributed to no other 
caufe but the more judicious, as well as more fre- 
quent employment of that mineral. But the con- 
clufion is as erroneous as the fad is falfe; thedifeafe, 
in itfelf and independent of circumflances, has not 
loft a particle of its virulence, but pofleffes at this 
moment every quality that it did at the fiege of 
Naples ; a melancholy and important truth, which 
no one will beinclined to call in queftionwho reads 
(and let him without fhuddering if he can) our 
circumnavigator’s account of the havock caufed 
among the inhabitants of Otakeite, by the infection 
which Monfieur de Bougainville s failors are fup- 
pofed to have left behind them. 
A fact Bill more diredly in point, as it leaves 
nothing to conjecture, and no lets certain than the 
former, is, that the defendants of the original in- 
habitants or America are at prefent, as their an- 
ceftors have been all along, in poffeffion of reme- 
dies againft the Venereal Difeafe, fo much fuperior 
to thole commonly adopted in Europe, that the 
diforder (quelled and kept down in each individual 
without being altered in its own elfence) never 
rnanifefts itfelf but in effeds and appearances infi- 
nitely milder than with us, and yet moft afluredly nothing mercurial enters into the compofition of 
thole remedies. But, as this is a fad of too much 
importance to be taken on my word; I have, to 
remove every doubt that the reader might enter- 
tain, tranflated and extracted from a work, whofe 
authenticity cannot be queftioned, the following 
account and confirmation of it. 
Mr. Kalm, of the Royal Academy of Sweden, 
having undertaken a voyage to America, not to 
gratify an idle curiofity, but to employ himfelf 
there in refearches that might be of life to his na- 
tive country, or to mankind in general, among 
other important difcoveries, made the following: 
“ That the Savages of America when attacked 
by the Venereal Difeafe, poffefs fecrets for the cure 
of it, more mild, fafe, certain and effedual, and 
much more fpcedy, than any of the preparations 
of mercury employed in Europe, which are all 
well known to bring on confequences, if poffible, 
worfe than thofe attending the diforder they are 
employed to cure.” 
“ That thefe fecrets are nothing more than Pimple 
decodions of certain herbs, which being made 
more or lefs ftrong, in proportion to the violence 
of the infedion, and, taken inwardly, never fail to 
carry off the complaint in a fortnight, or three 
weeks at furtheft.” 
“ That the fame or fimilar decodions are ufed 
to wafh and cleanfe venereal ulcers on all parts 
of the body; and that the herbs of which thefe 
decodions . are compofed, dried and reduced to 
powder, heal and clofe up thofe ulcers when 
brought to proper maturity.” 
Laflly, “ That all the herbs fo employed, 
either grow already in Europe, or may without 
any difficulty be raifed there; a ftrong prefump- tion (even to thofe who have no certainty of the 
fad) that, independant of thefe, our Continent 
produces many kinds of herbs of the fame efficacy, 
whofe virtues have not been tried, and are not 
generally known, merely becaufe the prejudices of 
the majority of phyficians will not fuffer them to 
look for a fpecifick againft fyphilis, elfewhere than 
in mercury alone/’ 
Thefe are the heads of Mr. Kalm’s account, re- 
duced into a ffiort compafs and divefted of bota- 
nical and other technical terms, unintelligible to 
the generality of readers. The phyfician or phi- 
lofopher who wiffies for further information, may 
confult the Memoirs of the Academy of Stock- 
holm, for the year 1750. 
But though there may be a poffibility of curing 
the Venereal Difeafe by other remedies than mer- 
cury (and that there is no doubt can remain with 
any one who has read the foregoing extrad.) why, 
it may be objeded, renounce the ufe of that mi- 
neral, which is acknowledged on all hands to pof- 
fefs properties of fome fort or other, peculiarly 
efficacious, in extinguifhing or expelling the vene- 
real virus ? For the following important reafons, 
which are no lefs certain than "they arc important; 
firft, the danger and ill effeds of mercury admi- 
niftered in its belt form and in the molt unexcep- 
tionable manner; fecondly, the dangers and ill 
effeds of the improper ufe of that mineral; and 
thirdly, its inefficacy. And with regard to the firft, 
(without infilling upon the fad of mercury being 
an abfolute and acknowledged poifon) who is 
it that confiders the violence with which it ads 
upon the human frame, but is convinced that a 
medicine, exciting fo fudden and general a revolu- 
tion in aimed every part of the body, cannot be other than highly dangerous ? But it is not fo 
much the violence of its operation in general, as 
its immediate and particular action upon the 
nervous'fyftem, the moft delicate part of the hu- 
man frame, and that which mercury attacks firft, 
principally and longeft, which conftitutes the 
danger. Hence the frequency of all the various 
tribes of nervous difeafes, increafed to fo great a 
degree of late, and almoft unknown to our an- 
ceftors. Hence it is that we fee fuch numbers of 
perfons of both fcxes, and of all confutations, 
drag out the remains of a wretched life with 
palfy, hypochondria or epilepfy, or find a re- 
,medy for their miferies in the fpeedier operation 
of apoplexy. Hence, in a great degree, it is, that 
idiotifm, lunacy, mania (chefe the moft awful mo- 
numents of human weaknefs and fevered fcourges 
of human pride) are become fo common, that 
places let apart for the treatment and reception of 
patients of this defeription, are multiplycd all over 
the kingdom to a degree almoft incredible. For 
let not the reader imagine that the ill effects of 
mercury are confined to the perfon who takes it; 
no, the life of any preparation of that mineral is 
(if fo bold an expreffion may be pardoned) a kind 
of original fin againft the human conftitution, in- 
fefting the pofterity of thofe that are rafh enough 
to commit it, for generations to come. It is to no 
purpofethat the phyfician, who orders mercury, 
endeavours to counteract its operation on the 
nerves by fedative remedies, as opium, camphire, 
&c. befides the cruel abfurdity of making the pa- 
tient’s body a fort of ftage as it were, on which 
two medicines of oppofite qualities are fee to 
prize fighting together, the defined end is never 
anfwered, at leaft never effectually i nothing more than a prefent palliation of the immediate fymp- 
toms being attainable by thefe means* It is to 
almoft as little purpofe, that copious exhibitions 
of bark are employed to keep up the tone of the 
fyftem, the too powerful influence of mercury 
abforbs the falutary effeds of that admirable fpe- 
cifick, and continues to reduce the whole habit 
and wear out the ftamina of life and vigour much 
more rapidly than it conquers the difeafe. To the 
violent and immediate adion therefore of mercury 
upon the nerves, and the total relaxation and de- 
bility which follow as neceflary confequences, are 
to be in a great meafure attributed, all thofe dif- 
ferent degrees of inability in the ad of generation 
that mark fo Ibamefully the prefent race, and bid 
fair in a little time, to introduce a total degeneracy 
both of body and mind in the humaii fpecies. 
If thefe be (as they moft affuredly are) the cer- 
tain and inevitable effeds of mercury, adminiftered 
in the beft manner, and with the moft judicious 
precautions, what are we to conclude of the con- 
fequences that rnuft follow an improper or unfea- 
fonable ufe of it? It is plain that every objection- 
able method of exhibiting this mineral rauft in- 
vojve all the foregoing ill effeds with more cer- 
tainty, and in a greater degree, along with the in- 
jurious confequences peculiar to iifelf. Of thefe 
objedionable method? (for to enumerate all would 
be unneceffary) I conceive the moft 
deftrudive to be Salivation. With regard to this 
pradile, already in fome meafure exploded and 
which can never be fufficientiy fo, fome excufe 
might be pleaded for the accidents which the pa- 
tient is liable to during the courle, however pain- 
ful or dangerous (fuch as the intolerably offenfive 
breath, which makes him loathfome to himfelf and others; the fwelling and inflammation of the glands 
of the mouth and throat, impeding deglutition, 
often rendering it impoffible, and giving the pati- 
ent the hideous appearance of a dog in the paroxyfm 
of madnefs; diarrhea often ending in dyientery ; 
catarrh and fpitting of blood frequently leading to 
confumptions, &c. all this, I fay, might be ex- 
cufed; if the praflife was not founded on erro- 
neous principles, and radically bad. To con- 
vince the reader, however little furnifhed with 
medical knowledge, that this is a truth, it will 
be fufficient to allure him, what no one pretend- 
ing to a medical education will be hardy enough 
to deny, THAT THE SALIVARY 
SECRETION, INSTEAD OF REMOVING. 
OPPOSES THE REMOVAL OF THE 
VENEREAL VIRUS. 
Now it is ceitain that much the greater 
part of the mercury, received in a courfe of fali- 
vation into the patient’s body, a6ls merely and 
folely upon the falivary glands; confequently the 
whole of that part contributes nothing towards the 
cure •, confequently it impedes and retards that cure 
confiderably ; and, by a cpnfequence no lefs certain, 
it penetrates, difturbs, convulfes, and debilitates 
the whole fyftem, without producing a fingle good 
effefl of any kind whatfoever. 
The ill confequences refulting from the various 
other modes of ufmg mercury, if not of magni- 
tude equal to thefe, are notwithftanding moll for- 
midably alarming. Need I mention the danger 
of flopping up in mercurial friflions, the pores of 
thole parts of the body where fuch a floppage is 
mofl dangerous; as is evinced by the eryfipelas 
which is fo often the confequence, and which, in- 
terrupting the treatment, leaves the patient to 
ftruggle with two enemies at once, the injurious properties of the medicine and the progrefs of the 
difeafe ! Or thole inconveniences peculiar to the 
other fex, fo often owing to an unfealonable ufc 
of mercury; as the derangement of their peri- 
odical evacuations, premature child birth and 
abortion ? No, enough has been already faid to 
make every thinking man cautious how he meddles 
with fo dangerous a remedy, even though it pof- 
fefled that univerfal efficacy in the cure of the 
Venereal Difeafe, which fo many of its partizan’s 
unrefervedly attribute to it, although every day’s 
pradife contradids their aiTertions. 
For where is the praditioner of any eminence, 
where the patient of experience beyond a firft or 
fecond flight infedion, that has notfeen or differed 
the inefficacy of this boafled mineral ? If phy- 
ficians and furgeons, thofe of them who have the 
care of hofpitals in particular, were candid enough 
to give the public all the information they could 
upon this head, it would be as generally known 
as it is true, not only that mercury frequently fails 
in cafes where the infedion has bren comraded 
for the fird time, and that as it loofes its energy 
by repetition (not indeed againft the conftitution 
but; againft the difeafe alone) the cure becomes at 
each fucceeding infedion more dangerous, diffi- 
cult and uncertain than the lad; but that in- 
flances every day occur, in which the exetffive 
exhibition of that mineral feems to retard the cure, 
and be the only ohftacle to the entire removal 
of the difeafe : inftances in which the patient, 
reduced by the difeafe and the remedy together 
to fuch a date, that certain death mud follow 
any longer perfidance in the ufe of mercury, is 
fent to the country as a lad refource, and then, 
without any other remedy but the abfence of mer- cury alone, recovers his former health and 
ftrength. 
Induced by the different confiderations here 
prefented to the reader, encouraged by the earneft 
exhortations, which Tome of the greateft lumi- 
naries of the phyfical world have conveyed to pos- 
terity in their works, and affifted at the fame time 
by their doftrines and principles, to confummace 
a difeovery they reluctantly left unfinifhed them- 
feives, the inventor of the Specifick Drops, after 
many effays, much labour and great expence, 
brought his medicine many years fince, to a de- 
gree of perfection which warrants him to offer it 
to the public as fuperior to any compofition, 
mercurial or otherwife, hitherto employed for the 
cure of all the various ftages of the Venereal 
Difeafe. 
Although the fureft, indeed the only criterion 
of the excellence of my medicine is experience j 
and although the Specifick Drops, now in the pof- 
feffion of the public for above fifteen years, and 
encreafing every day in reputation, want no re- 
commendation that experience can give them : it 
will, I prefume, be facisfaCiory to the reader to 
fay a few words of their nature, and the manner 
in which they operate. 
The mildnefs of this medicine’s operation, is not 
lets remarkable than its efficacy; and, however 
ftrange it may appear to the reader, it is one and 
the fame caule that produces thefe two fccmingly 
incompatible effects; for acting, as.it does, upon 
all the iecretions at once; and encreafing no one 
of them to any exceffive degree, it excites no 
fudden or violent revolution in any one part of the 
body, and at the fame time extends its energy to 
all. Befides, thofe of the fecretions which it more than the reft, though moderately and fafely 
are thofe, in which fuch an augmentation, is, at 
once, leaft troubleiome to the patient, and moft 
efficacious in carrying off any complaint whatever 
of the blood and humours; I mean urine and 
perfpiratioD. Mixing thus with the whole mafs of 
the fluids, as well the more fubtle and delicate as 
the grofler, it diflblves all vifcidities, carries off 
impurities of every kind, and by attacking the 
contagion at the fountain-head, removes fafely, 
fpeedily and efficacioufly all inflammatory and 
other morbid fymptoms throughout the habit, all 
of which, however different in appearance, fpring 
from one and the fame polluted fource. 
Hence its efficacy is not confined to the Vene- 
real dileafe ; it has been exhibited with equal fuc- 
cefs in other maladies arifing from a foulnefs of 
the blood and juices •, as gout, rheumatifm, fcurvy, 
fcrophula, &c. 
At the fame time that there is no ftage of the 
Venereal infedion, however inveterate, that can 
refift the proper adminiftration of this medicine, 
it is, from the manner of its operation, peculiarly 
calculated for the cure of gonorrhea, which 
it never fails to remove in a fpace of time incre- 
dibly fhort, without any liik of leaving behind 
it either a confirmed infedion, or an habitual 
gleet, two confequences that fo frequently follow 
the commonly adopted method of treating this 
complaint. For while, by its action upon the 
whole habit, it calms and abates every inflam- 
matory fymptom, at the lame time, by increafing 
the urinary difcharge, it deanfes the affeded part, 
keeps the ulcer in a mild healing (late, and walk- 
ing off the matter as fall as it is formed, pre- vents the (preaching of the firft and the formation 
of any other. Hence it is that it removes, almoft 
immediately, the (harpnefs of urine and chordee, 
two of the mod troubleforne attendants on gonor- 
rhea, who(eabfence not only rids the patientof much 
pain, but gives him the agreeable affurance that the 
cure of his complaint is confiderably advanced. 
It is in confequence of the extreme gentlenefs 
and innocence of thefe Drops, that they are given 
to Venereal patients during pregnancy, with the 
utmoft cafe, fafety and effecff, at once expelling 
the infection, removing the aggravation by it 
caufed of the natural and neccffary dangers of gef- 
tation and parturition, and cutting off all commu- 
nication of the difeaie from the innocent babe. 
But of all the excellent properties of this medi- 
cine, there is none on which I fet a higher va- 
lue, than its efficacy in counteracting the ill effects 
of mercury, and expelling, as far as by medicine 
they can be expelled, all dregs and relicks of 
that mineral from the conftitution. For this 
reafon, thofe of my patients, whofe circumftances 
or fituation in life may make them wiffi, in cafes 
extraordinary bad, to abridge the treatment 
fomewhat, may add, under my own infpection, 
or in conformity with my particular directions, 
the ufe of a proper mercurial preparation to than 
of the Specifick Drops. At the fame time it 
mtift be remarked, that I recommend to patients 
to trufl to the Specifick Drops alone; but, if 
mercury mufl be joined to them, I can affert that 
they will not only affiift its operation, but, throwing 
off the Venereal virus and the mercurial particles 
by perfpiration and urine, cure the patient at once 
of the remedy and the difeafe. The gentlenefs of a medicine’s operation, the 
facility with which it may be taken, the fecrecy 
of its effeds, the circumftances of its requiring 
no extraordinary trouble or particular preparation, 
are recommendations to a remedy againft any dif- 
cafe, but peculiarly fo to one for the cure of fy- 
philis; and all thefe recommendations the Spe- 
cifick Drops poflefs in a very eminent degree, 
They require no confinement, negled of bufinefs, 
nor particular regimen; it is fufficient if the 
patient avoids falted or high-feafoned food, violent 
cxercife, ftrong liquors, unlefs in fmall quantity, 
and above all,thofe pleafures by which his infection 
was contraded. Sixty drops (or a Teafpoonful) 
taken in any Ample liquor, (as a glafs of water, 
a difh of tea, capillaire, &c.) are a dofe. This 
is to be repeated three or four times every day, 
taking every week, or every fourth or fifth day, as 
may be neceflary, a gentle cathartic, viz. an ounce 
of Glauber’s falts, or, in ftrong conftitutions, ten 
drachms, or an ounce and a half, diffolved in 
about a gill of warm water. Thofe who have a 
repugnance to Glauber’s cathartic fait, may take 
an ounce, or more, if neceflary, of the phofphorated 
Soda, (diflblved in a little Veal or Chicken 
broth) which will be found not only efficacious, 
but perfedly agreeable both to the palate and 
ftomach. To thofe however who cannot procure 
this fait; who confider it as too dear, or who have 
an unfurmountable antipathy to all kinds of falls,— 
the following compofidon is recommended ; Take of the infufion of forma, an ounce and a half; 
. Tinfture of fenna, two drachms ; 
—— Soluble tartar & manna, of each, one drachm * 
• .Rhubarb, pulverifed, twelve grains : 
Mix and make the draught, directing the patient 
to (hake the bottle when he is about to take it. 
Should pills be preferred to any purging draugt, 
they may be made up according to the following 
prescription: 
Take of Cathartic extrafl, one drachm ; 
Rhubarb, calomel and refin or jalap, of 
each, half a drachm ; 
Medicinal, or white Soap, one Scruple* 
Syrop of pale rofes, or fimple fyrop, as much 
as will make them into thirty pills, of which two 
three, or more, according to the conftitution of 
the patient, may be taken for a dofe, walking 
them down with any mild fimple liquor, as whey, 
tea, &c. and working them off like the other 
purges with warm water gruel. 
In this manner the patient is to proceed, until 
a Ihort time after the difappearance of all the 
fymptoms being elapfed (for if he difeontinues im- 
mediately on their difappearance, a relapfe might 
be dreaded) he is allured of the total and radical 
cure of his complaint. 
It is neceffary to inform the reader, that in cafes 
of external fymptoms (as phymofis, paraphi- 
mofis, buboes, lhankers, chryftallines, &c.) ex- 
ternal applications are abfolutely neceffary; but 
they may be conduced in a manner perfectly con- 
fident with fecrecy, and with very little trouble 
to the patient. 
Thofe who have an opportunity of applying 
in perfon at my houfe, may rely on being treated in a manner beft Anted to their cafe; and thofc 
the remotenefs of whofe fituation renders all per- 
sonal intercourfe impoffible, fhall, upon defcrib- 
ing by letter, as minutely and exaClly as they can, 
all the Symptoms of their refpeClive cafes, receive, 
without lofs of time, fuch directions and instruc- 
tions, as may enable them either to relieve them- 
felves, or judge whether the perfon they are 
obliged to confide themfelvcs to, is capable of 
doing fo effectually or not. 
The former Editions of this Treatife contained a 
few cafes of extraordinary cures effected by the 
Specifick Drops, all of which the prefent public 
notoriety of their excellence induced me to leave 
out in this one. I thought it improper to reft 
upon half a dozen inftances, the reputation of a 
medicine whofe virtues are proved by more than 
as many thoufands. Thofe however who have any 
curiofity in that way to gratify, may, upon calling 
at my houfe, fee a much greater number of letters 
of acknowledgement, figned with the patients 
names, and in their own hand-writing, than, I 
am confident, they will have patience to perufe. 
FINIS, OBSERVATIONS 
ON THE 
CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, and CURE 
TABES DORSALIS, 
INTERSPERSED WITH 
Remarks on Analogous Complaints, on the 
different Degrees 
BARRENNESS and IMPOTENCE, 
AND 
THE VARIOUS OTHER DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS 
OF EARLY OR EXCESSIVE VENERY. 
Eft mollis Jiamma medullas 
Interea, fe* taciturn mi-vitfuh peflore <vuluus, 
Virgil, OBSERVATIONS 
O N 
TABES DORSALIS, &c. 
There is not perhaps any opinion more 
univerfal, nor, if we may credit the teflimony 
of the oldeft writers extant, more ancient, than 
the common one, which fuppofcs a kind of 
progreffive degeneracy in the human race, an un- 
remitting depravation in all the endowments of 
man, degrading each lucceffion of adlors on this 
great ftage, and fetting them below their prede- 
ceffbrs in every thing valuable, amiable or great. 
Every generation complains of its own inferiority 
in lize, vigour and health, and becomes in its 
turn an objed of admiration to its fucceffor, which, 
to efcape the profped of prefent debility, defor- 
mity and difeafe, looks back with rapture to the 
imaginary prc-eminencc of former days. Homer, 
who lived but a few generations later than the hero 
he celebrates, thought he could not, with propri- 
ety, give Achilles lels than the ftrengch of twelve 
of his own puny contemporaries •, and the poets, 
who have fuccecded .Homer in different ages and 
nations, have not been lefs liberal to their rel'pec- 
tive favourites : not, we may fuppofe, that they 
admitted the truth of the common opinion ; but 
that, wifhingto gratify that love of the wonderful, 
naturally implanted in thebreafts of their auditors, 
or readers, they were glad to do fo by a fidion, which flattered their prejudices while it excited 
their admiration. 
There can indeed be no doubt, that the opinion 
in queftion is not univerfally true; fmce, if it 
were, the work of depopulation muft have been 
long fincc completed, and the earth ere now made 
one vaft defart; yet, if properly confidered, it 
will be found not to be totally falfe. For certain 
it is, that the degeneracy complained of, does 
really take place, and is at all times making a rapid 
progrefs, in a confiderable portion of the inhabi- 
tants of this globe, that portion which occupies 
the mod confpicuous fituation on it, the rich, 
illufhrious and great ; and that, if the breaches 
made upon human nature, through the Tides of 
thefe, her feemingly favourite Tons, were not con- 
tinually repaired'by the negle&ed and obfcurer,but 
more ufeful part of her offspring, the poor and la- 
borious, her creative powers muft have been long 
fince at a ftand for want of materials to work upon. 
The families of kings, heroes, and nobles, after 
dwindling through a fhort fucceftion of genera- 
tions, at length totally difappear; their places are 
fupplied from the pafture or the plough, and the 
new pofleffor of wealth and dignity, intails upon 
his pofterity the joint and infeparable acquifition 
of opulence and infirmity, luxury anddifeafe. The 
country, the true qfficina gentium, the great work- 
Jhop of humanity, is continually fending in fupplies 
from her forefts and mountains, and difpatching 
her hardy and prolifick Tons to fill up the chafms 
of population while cities and great towns, thole 
immenfe gulphs in which the redundancies of cre- 
ation are abiorbed, ftand open night and day to 
receive the voluntary victims of difeafe and death, 
Nottes atone dies tatet atri jama Ditis. Confidering the notion alluded to under this 
point of view, we are enabled to fix its true im- 
port, and we find that to deny the exigence of the 
evil complained of entirely, or to admit it beyond 
a certain extent, are errors equally manifeft, but 
not, perhaps, equally dangerous. For, if to fhun 
any calamity we are threatened with, it is neceflary 
firfl to be warned of its approach, it muft be of 
infinite confequence to a very confiderable portion 
of mankind ; to the rich, the luxurious, the 
fedentary, and tne fludious; to all the votaries of 
pleafure, and moft of the Tudors of fortune and 
fame; to all the inhabitants of cities and great 
towns without exception, and to many other orders 
and deferiptions of men under circumftances 
of lefs general comprehenfion •, to all thefe furely 
it muft be highly important to know, that by a 
neceflary confequence of their feveral fituations and 
purfuits, they are continually anticipating the 
existence, intercepting the health and vigour, and 
precluding the happinefs of their unborn pofterity, 
and as far as in them lies, labouring for a total 
extinction of the human race. 
This confederation, however, though fo very 
weighty and alarming in irfelf, may be perhaps 
of a nature too remote to be interefting to many. 
There would Teem to be fomewhat of a microfco- 
pic quality in the mind of man, in confequence of 
which we are Argus-eyed to the minuted and lead 
important of our immediate and prefent concerns, 
but blind to thofc of the greatcd magnitude, that 
are removed to ever fo fmall a didance. Info- 
much that, if the danger to be apprehended, 
threatened future generations only, it would be in 
vain to expeft that much attention fhould be paid 
to it by the prefent. But fince the pollution that fouls the whole ftream muft begin at the fountain 
head ; fince thofe who fow mull reap, while their 
followers can only glean : fince, in a word, we 
cannot tranfmit to pofterity the effedls of our mif- 
fortunes, our negligence or our crimes, without 
firft feeling them ourfelves ; it would be madnefs 
in us not to confider whether there is a poffibi- 
lity, by taking certain precautions, of preventing, 
whenever prevention can be obtained, or of pal- 
liating where palliation is the moft that can be 
hoped for. 
What the precautions to be taken are, in thofe 
cafes where any precautions can be effectual, it is 
hardly neccllary to point out. The common fenfc 
and common experience of every one a little ad- 
vanced in the journey of life, informs him abun- 
dantly what he Ihould both do and omit for the 
prefervation of his health. Who is it that does 
not know the importance of temperance and ex- 
ercife for this great purpofe, or is ignorant that no 
care in other refpeds can make adequate amends 
for want of attention to either of thefe points ? 
If thefe duties (for there are duties which we 
owe to ourfelves, and thefe are of the number) 
were as generally obferved as their importance is 
univerfally acknowledged, the human frame would 
Hand little in need of artificial afliftance, and 
phyfic would be cultivated rather as an amufing 
{peculation than a practical art. But fince ne- 
ceffity in fome ihftances, ignorance or inattention 
in others, and paffion in a much greater number, 
induce long and frequent deviations from the 
path that ihould be followed ; and fince thefe de- 
viations, by continual repetition, exhauft and 
enfeeble, fo as to preclude all poflibility of return; 
it becomes one of the firft duties, as it is one of the mod arduous tafks of the phyfician to take the 
unhappy wanderer by the hand, aflift him to mea- 
fure back the fteps he has trod fo foolifhly and 
fatally, and enable him, if poflible, to regain the 
ftation from whence he fat out/ 
Ail the different fpecies of Tabes, the various 
degrees and kinds of wafte or decay, that affeCt 
the human body, though owing to caufes not 
the fame, and attended each with fome fymptoms 
not common to the reft, agree very much in this, 
that the bafis or ground work of the cure is nearly 
the fame in all. 
Whatever enriches the blood without inflaming 
it; whatever braces, without ftimulating too vio- 
lently the nervous fyftem; whatever frees and dif- 
burthens the vifcera and other important organs; 
whatever refolves obftruCtions and throws off 
vifcid and ftrong humours ; whatever ftrengthens 
the general habit and brings back the mufcular 
fibres to their natural and healthy tone; whatever 
is calculated to produce in a conflderable degree 
all or any of thele eflefts, muft under certain mo- 
difications and reftri&ions, be equally adapted for 
the cure of every fpedes of decay. Hence, through, 
the confiderations adduced, the method of cure 
pointed out, and the medicine recommended in 
the following Treatife, make a direct attack upon 
the many-headed Hydra but in one quarter only, 
they will be found to apply indirectly or colla- 
terally in every,, or almolt every other. This pri- 
mary objeCt of the perfon who here fubmits his 
ideas to the public, ideas dictated and confirmed 
by a long and practice, is to relieve 
thole perfons who, by an immoderate indulgence 
of their paflions, have ruined their conftitutions 
and brought on a perfect Tabes Bor falls, or, in their way to the confummation of that deplorable 
malady, are affected with any of thofc previous 
fymptoms that betray its approach, as the various 
affections of the nervous I'yflem, obftinate gleets, 
involuntary feminal emiffions, excefs, irregularity 
or obftrudlion of certain evacuations, fluor albus, 
weakneffes of the genital parts, total impotence, 
barrennefs, &c. but the relief he wifhes to admi- 
nifter is not confined to thoie alone. The valetu- 
dinarian by birth, who has received from his pa- 
rents the inheritance of a difeafed and unprolifick 
frame; the delicate female, whom an immured 
and inactive way of life, together with the immo- 
derate ufe of tea, and ether weak and watry ali- 
ments, has, without any fault of hers, unfitted 
for the flate of marriage ; the fedentary artift, 
the indolent votary of fciences, whom a want of 
air and exercife by degrees enfeebles, and at laft 
totally enervates; the determined worfhipper of 
Bacchus, in whom a temporary and violent tenfion 
of the nerves, and elevation of the fpirits, are 
fucceeded by aconftant and habitual relaxation of 
the one and depreffion of the other; the adven- 
turous voyager, who, returning from the fervice 
of his country, or the purfuits of traffick, has 
brought home from either Indies, or Africa, the 
cffefls of a climate fo little fuited to his confuta- 
tion ; all thefe will find the oblervations of the 
following Treadle, and the proprietors of the me- 
dicine recommended in it, not Ids applicable in 
moil inftances to themklves, than to thofe for 
whom they are immediately intended. 
Having thus given our readers to underftand 
what they are to look for in the diffusion of 
the fubjeCl in hand, we proceed to an account of 
Tabes Dorfalis, under the three general heads of Caufes, Symptoms and Cure; referring to each of 
thefe divifions our jemarks upon fuch analogous 
maladies, as have been already intimated, or may 
hereafter be pointed out. 
Tabes Dorfalis, or confumption of the back, 
(fo called becaufe the bafis of the dileafe is fup- 
pofed to be a depravation and wafting of the fpi- 
nal marrow) is conftuuted by an union of all the 
worft fymptoms that characterize an univerfal and 
rapid decay. Its chief and primary caufe is ac- 
knowledged to be an exceftive evacuation of the 
feminal liquor. That immoderate wafte of any 
of the humors or fecretions of the body fhould 
haye the worft confcquences, no one will be in- 
clined to doubt, fince theneceftary balance between 
evacuation and reparation, the due proportion be- 
tween what we are every moment lofmg and every 
moment receiving to fupply that lols, upon which 
nutrition depends, is thereby neceffarily deftroyed, 
and the whole animal economy unhinged. Now, 
If the confequences to be apprehended in cafes 
of this fort bear, as it is evident they muft, a pro- 
portion to the ufefulnefs and importance of the 
fecretion wafted, it would be eafy to conceive why 
immoderate leminal difeharges produce effeCts fo 
peculiarly fatal. For of all the humors and le- 
cretions, the feminal liquor is the moft elaborate 
in its preparation, as well as moft powerful in its 
properties and effeCts. It is indeed the quintef- 
fence of all the reft ; a highly rectified and infi- 
nitely refined fpirit, diftillcd, as it were, from all 
parts of the body, but particularly from the brain 
and fpinal marrow, from whence it is conducted 
by nervous and other canals to the organs where 
it is fecreted, and from thence to the refervoirs 
where it is to remain. The various conjectures formed byphyitcians and phifiologiftsof ancient and 
modern times, concerning the nature of this pre- 
cious liquor, though perhaps wide of the truth, 
ferve at lead to (hew the value that has always been 
let upon it. It is not indeed neceftfary to have re- 
courfe to theory, to be convinced of its vail con- 
fequence to the human frame. What we fee in 
others, what \Ve every day feel in our own per- 
fons, that languor and incrtnefs that immediately 
fucceed the fmalleft wafte of it, demonilrate fuf- 
ficiently, that in parting with it we lofe the moil 
valuable portion of ourfelves. For it muft not 
be imagined, that it has been folely defigned by 
nature to aniwer the fingle purpofe of the propa- 
gation of the fpecies; this, though its immediate 
and primary objeft, can only be attained in a 
number of instances infinitely few, in proportion 
to the quantum of generative powers given to 
each individual. It is phyfically impoffible that 
any woman, as it is morally fo that any man, 
fhould, in the courfe of a long life, become a 
parent as often as the body ot either is able to 
prepare and fecrete a certain quantity of the femi- 
nal liquor. What then is to become of the reft ? 
To what purpofe is the overplus to be applied ? 
It is intended, whenever our intemperate and per- 
verfe abufe of the gifts of nature do not counter- 
aft her wife intentions, to nourifh, enrich, and 
invigorate the whole frame ; for being conveyed 
after fecretion into the feminal veffels, it remains 
there till a voluntary or involuntary evacuation 
carries it oft'. So long however as it abides there, 
the greateft part of it, and that too confifting of 
the raoft iubtle, volatile, odorous and powerful 
particles, is continually reabforbed into the blood, 
by means of the lymphaticks, with which the or- gans of generation are abundantly furnifhed. Re- 
ftored thus to the general, mafs, it vifics every 
part of the human frame, exciting wherever it 
pafles a gentle-but continual irritation, which in- 
creafes the energy of the veflels i their adion upon 
the fluids thereby acquires frefti ftrength, the 
circulation is pufhed on with redoubled vigour, 
all the vital fundions receive a new fpring, and 
are performed with the utmoft efficacy and per- 
fedion of which they are fufceptible. 
Thefe confiderations are fufficienc to fhew the 
difference between a wafte of thofe fecretions, 
whofe exceffive evacuation injures only by exciting 
an extraordinary derivation of the humors to fill 
up the emptied fpace (as when a nurfe, for in- 
ftance, exhaufts herfelf by giving fuck to two 
children at a time) and that of a liquor of fuch 
importance in the animal economy as is the femen. 
In the former cafe, the body limply fuffers the 
privation of afubftance, neceffary indeed for fome 
one particular purpofe, but abfolutcly ufelefs iij 
every other refped j in the latter, it labours under 
the abfence of a matter, fo effentially and indif- 
penfibly requifite to the due performance of all its 
fundions without exception, that not one of them 
can be carried on properly under a want of it, Yei 
it is not merely the prodigal wafte of fo invaluable 
a treafure that injures ; that is but one, perhaps 
the fmalleft, of the caufes, which gave rile to lb 
many dreadful effeds ; the circumftances by which 
that wafte is accompanied, conftitute another, and, 
if we may rely upon the opinions of phyflcians j 
the dedudions of phyflological reafonings, and 
the fuggeftions of experience, much the more con- 
fiderable caufe of the two. For it muff be ob- 
ferved, that to produce a feminal difeharge, the efforts of the organs immediately employed are 
rot fufficient ; to effeft this the whole frame la- 
bours, the circulation of all the humors under- 
goes a violent and preturnatural acceleration, the 
nerves are wound up to the higheft tenfion they 
are fufceptible of, the fibres of all the mufcles of 
the body and coats of the veflels, are contracted 
by an univerfal fpafm, and a tempoiary convulfive 
paroxyfm takes place, which require .-only to be 
repeated often enough, and at intervals fufficiently 
fhort, to produce all the worft effefts of cpilepfy. 
Whoever confiders the ftrufture, mechanifm and 
nature of the nerves, their importance in the 
animal economy, the facility with which they are 
put out of order, and the difficulty of recovering 
them when ferioufly attacked* mod fee clearly 
the danger of an aft that diforders and agitates 
them lb powerfully, and need not be told that 
the frequent repetition of fuch an aft, if attended 
with no other but its own ncceffary ill confe- 
quences muft inevitably be fatal. The connexion 
of the nervous fyftem with all the nobler 
vital organs is never fo manifeft as when, the 
former refufing the ufual aid, the latter fall 
into immediate languor, and betray a total in- 
ability of performing their refpeftive functions. 
The ftomach, being, of all the vifcera, one of thofe 
that receives the greateft number of nerves (a 
number proportioned no doubt to the vaft im- 
portance of its office) is the firff: by which a 
difeafed ftate of the nerves is announced. Di- 
geffion becomes laborious and imperfeft; the 
humors of confequence aflume a degree of 
crudity that unfits them for their different ufes, 
nutrition ceafes, and no reparation of na- 
tural wafle taking place, atrophy and maraf- mus enfue. But what is ftill worfe, while the 
difeafes of the nerves thus give rife to all the vvorft 
difeafes of the ftomach, the latter in their turn 
contribute no lefs to the former; what was firft 
an effed becomes foon a caufe, and, each of the 
two evils encreafing and aggravating the other, 
both grow up to a degree of magnitude and in- 
veteracy equally incurable and intolerable. The 
proof of the double influence of the nerves on the 
ftomach and the ftomach on the nerves, is found 
in the tendency that all perfons labouring under 
an incomplete digeftion, have to convulfive and 
paralytick complaints; and in the certainty and 
rapidity with which chefe and firnilar complaints 
bring on ail difeafes of the ftomach that did not 
take place before. To this double caufe is 
owing the frequency of hyfterical affeQtions among 
women, their nervous fyftem being much more 
irritable than in the other fex, and their too 
general preference offlops to more nourifhingfood, 
together with the want of air and exercife, having 
an infuperable tendency towards weakening and 
deftroying the energy of the digeftive faculties. 
But while the nerves ad thus powerfully upon 
the ftomach, can we fuppofe the brain, their 
fource and fountain head as it were, to efcape a 
participation of whatever injures them? Will any 
one aflert that the feat and origin of fenfation 
remains undifturbed, when the injlruments of that 
admirable and myfterious faculty undergo a 
violent and dangerous attack ? The contrary is 
abundantly proved by the various difeafes, both of 
mind and body, ariling in the brain in confe- 
quence of all fpafms and convulfions of the nerves 
frequently repeated. Hence epileptics of any 
confiderable handing, if not cured, terminate generally in mania or idiotifm. Hence an im- 
moderate abufe of the pleafures of Venus (for the 
ad of coition is nothing more than a fhort epilepfy) 
is followed by ftmilar confeqtiences. The fa- 
culties of the mind are debafcd, the imagination 
is dulled and the memory deftroyed ; the organs 
of fenfe are blunted, the light in particular fuffers, 
but all in a greater or Idler degree. To theie 
effects of the fpafmodic tcnfion of the nerves, mull 
be added that afflux of blood to the brain in coitu, 
which not unfrequently produces apoplexy and 
kills in the very ad. 
Another evil neceffarily derived from the fame 
fource, is theobftrudion of the infenfibic perfpira- 
tion. This, though not only the moft confidcrablc 
of all our evacuations, but more confiderable. 
as has been long fince proved beyond a poffibility 
of denial, than all tne reft put together, is 
carried on without any feeling of it on our part. 
Hence it is eafy to conceive, both how admirably 
energetic that adion of the nerves is, which ope- 
rates fo conftant, fo confiderable and yet fo im- 
perceptible an effed within our bodies, and to 
guefs at the innumerable dangers that muft attend 
an irregularity or ftoppage of that effed. But 
unfortunately we are not left to guefs at them ; 
experience points them out too clearly to leave 
any room for conjedure. 
The confideration of this double caufe of dan- 
ger in repeated coition (the wafte of the feminal 
liquor and fpafmodick convulfion of the nerves) 
fur nifties us with the reafon, why moderate 
coition hurts women lefts than men, but excefflve 
enjoyments of that fort much more; for their 
femen being of a kind lefts elaborate,, lefts fpirituous, 
and lei's confident than the male, the mere lofts of it is little felt; but when to that lofs is added 
an immoderate and frequent irritation of the 
nervous fyftem, in proportion as that fyftem is 
more irritable in women than in men, in the fame 
proportion muft the confequences which enfue 
from it be more pernicious. 
Such are the inevitable dangers, not lefs merci- 
fully than juftly attached by Providence, to an 
imprudent and cxceflive enjoyment of thofe plea- 
fures, which, under a legitimate fandtion, and 
confined within the limits even thendndifpenfabkv 
are not only harmlefs, but falutary ; which not only 
efifefl the perpetuation of the fpecies, but contri- 
bute both to the mental and bodily health of the 
individual. But if natural delights are tempered 
with tbefe bitter but neceflary allays, what fhall 
we fay of the various kinds of impious de- 
bauchery, difavowed by nature and invented by 
the criminal ingenuity of man ? Is it not reafon- 
able to conclude, that they cannot be lefs de- 
limit ive in their effects, than enormous in their 
guilt, and that even here a punifhment awaits 
them proportioned to the offence ? With regard 
to one at leaf!:, perhaps the mod criminal, cer- 
tainly the moft pernicious of all, the odious and 
defpicable pradtife of felf-abufe, this is undeniably 
the cafe. So many caufes concur to render excels 
in this fpecics of libertinifm inevitable, and fo pe- 
culiarly deftruclive, are the confequences of chat 
cxcefs, that an explanation of thofe caufes confti- 
tutes a neceifary part of a Treatife defigned, as 
the prefent is, to avert or remedy evils, an infi- 
nitely large proportion of which is derived from 
this foul fource. 
So clofe is the union, fo intimate the connexion 
between the mind and the body, that whatever caufe operates upon the one, the effed produced is 
communicated to the other, it would be difficult 
to determine in which of the two the power of ad- 
ing upon the other is the greater-, it is fufficient to 
obferve that their influence is reciprocal, and that 
that influence preponderates in either, in propor- 
tion as the energy of its faculties are called forth 
by particular circumftances. If the mind borrows 
from the body the weaknefs of childhood, the 
fprightlinefs of youth, the maturity of manhood, 
the decrepitude of old age, the vigour of health, 
and the languor of difeafe ; if it feems to be born, 
grow up and decay with it; if during their con- 
tinuance together it refleds every colour and im- 
preffion that takes place in the animal portion of 
our being : in return it communicates all its own 
fenfations and affedions, controuls and over-bears 
its fubjed partner, and exercifes over the body 
committed to its guidance, the empire which God 
and nature defigned it fhould enjoy. Hence it 
is, that the feelings and defires which naturally 
originate in the one, may, by being frequently 
excited in both together, be adopted as it were by 
the other, and arife fpontaneoufiy there too. The 
calls of nature properly fo termed, hunger and 
thirfl, for inftance, belong only to the body ; yet 
as the body makes the mind a fharer in thele fen- 
faiions, as in every other, the offices of the two may 
by degrees be fo confounded, that that one may 
learn to lead which ought to follow, that one learn 
to flimulate which ought to wait for the ftimulation 
of the other. The man who extinguishes his reafon 
in wine, or in whom the divina pdrticula aura finks 
under the oppreffion of an overloaded ftomach, 
only yields to the perverfion of a natural appetite ; 
an appetite refidirg in the body, but whofe per- verfion can only take place through the medium of 
the mind ; as is plain from the example of thofe 
animals, whom the want of reafon guards againd 
the exccffes by which reafon is difgraced. This is 
no lefs evident in the cafe of that impulfe, by 
which nature has provided for the propagation of 
the fpecies; but, being more adive and ungo- 
vernable than any other inftind we are fubjed to, 
and, though purely corporeal, approaching nearly 
in many circumflances to the nature of mental af- 
fedions, its workings are not always fo eafily 
traced. A concurrence of certain phyfical condi- 
tions and qualities, which in the common courfe 
of nature cannot take place before the age of pu- 
berty, excites an irritation of the organs of gene- 
ration, pointing out the neceflary evacuation, and 
while that evacuation follows under thefe circum- 
ftances, and in the natural way only, it not only 
does not injure, but is in fome degree falutary. 
But as the gratification by which it is accompa- 
nied is communicated to the mind, a too frequent 
repetition of that gratification induces an habitual 
facility in the imagination of being excited to 
fimilar defires and fenfations by the flighted ex- 
ternal caufe, and at length without any other caufe 
than the abufe of its own creative powers. The 
mind and body thus mutually corrupting and cor- 
rupted, each feeds, extends and blows up the 
conflagration that con fumes the other •, the mind, 
brooding perpetually over a reftlefs fwarm of 
obfeene ideas, direds all the energy of its own 
faculties, and along with it all the powers of the 
body fufceptible of that diredion, to a Angle 
point; and fhould the momentary intrufion of 
other thoughts divert it for a while from the object 
of its filthy meditations, the fliarp humours thrown by the body upon the parts of generation excite 
an irritation that is fure to recall it. This may 
ferve to explain the danger of indulging ideas, 
which we are too apt to confider harmlels when 
not immediately carried into effect, but which are 
never fo, bccaufe, though conquered perhaps in 
one inftance, they yield but to triumph on the 
next occafion. From this fource alone are all 
exceftes of this kind derived; nothing being more 
futile than the excufe of confiitution fo frequently 
al lodged; when no factitious ftimulus is fuper- 
added to the impulfe of conftitution, it never 
prompts to any dangerous excels, and may always 
be indulged without apprehenfion. 
But if this danger be lb great in thofe who feek 
none but natural enjoyments, what mu ft it be in 
the unhappy victims of the vile and deftruclive 
pratftife above alluded to ? The fear of detection, 
the reftfaint of Ihame, the certainty of punilh- 
ment in fome way or other, enable the former to 
bear up againft a temptation which requires the 
concurrence of another perfon to take efteCl; but 
when the criminal carries for ever about him the 
inftruments and incentive of his own guilt, when 
no accomplice is neceffary, when folitude en- 
courages and darknefs protefts, what can hinder 
the odious propenfity from taking frequent effect, 
or the repetition oftheaCt from degenerating into, 
habit ? Add to this, that the infection being, as 
it almoft always is, communicated in childhood or 
early youth, the weaknei's of reafon, and ig- 
norance or careleffnefs of confequences, natural to 
that age, leave it at liberty to ftrike root and 
eftablifh its empire over thefenfes ; lb that when the 
period arrives at which reafon ought to exert her 
influence, the time of amendment is paft, and paft never to be recalled. What the force of habit 
is in all cafes, is fufficieatly known to thofe who 
obi'erve what paffes in themfelves or others, and 
ftill more to thofe who to that obfervation join an 
attentive confideration of the nature of man, and 
of the qualities and difpofitions of which he is 
made up. What has been already hinted con- 
cerning the union of the mind and body, may be 
applied here too, and will ferve to fhew, that 
if all habits, by which both the component parts 
of our being are affeded, when once thoroughly 
formed, are inexpreffibly difficult of removal; 
the cure of habits of this kind, if not altogether 
impoffible, is fo nearly fo, as to leave us no term 
fhort of impoffible by which to exprefs its diffi- 
culty. The following very extraordinary cafe, 
fmgle it fhould be hoped in its kind, taken from 
a late publication, whofc authenticity is unquef- 
tionable, lets the unconquerable obftinacy of this 
tenacious habit in fo clear and alarming a light, 
that I cannot avoid tranferibing it for the 
inftrudion of my readers. It will ferve to guard 
the yet untainted againfl; the danger of infedion, 
and may contribute perhaps to the cure of thofe 
in whom a cure is yet attainable. 
“ Mr. Semin, furgeon to the Hotel Dteu at Nar- 
bonne, has lately publifhed in the Gazette de Sante, 
a curious inftance of the efteds of mafturbation 
in a fiiepherd, named Gabriel Galien, who began 
to addid himfelf to this baneful pradice at the 
age of fifteen, and at firft repeated it feven or 
eight times a day.—After a while the pleafure he 
experienced from this manoeuvre began to dirni- 
nifii, and when he was about fix and twenty years 
old, the repetition of it ceafed to excite any fen- 
fation. At this time he difcovered, that by irri- tating the end of the urethra with a little wooden 
{lick, he could ftill fatisfy himfelf completely. 
This artifice, however, in procefs of time failed 
to produce the defined eflecft, the urethra being by- 
degrees rendered infenfible, and even callous. 
Lamenting his lofs of fenfibility, he now deter- 
mined to try the effect of a flight inciflon at the 
end of the urethra. This he did with the point 
of his knife, and inftead of pain, it produced, 
as he afterwards afiured Mr. Semin, an agreeable 
fenfation, and the effed he wifhed for. 
Plcafcd with the fucceis of this experiment, he 
often repeated it, and, by flitting open from time 
to time a little of the urethra, in the courfe of 
two years, the glans penis, urethra and corpora 
cavernofa were completely divided up to the 
pubes. When he happened, as he did fometimes, 
to bring on an haemorrhage, he flopped it by tying 
a piece of packthread round his penis. 
As he could now no longer ufe his knife, he 
was obliged to have recourfe again to the ufe of 
a little flick, and with this he was able to reach 
the orifice of the vejiculce feminales, and bring on 
an emiflion of femen. He continued to repeat 
this practice till June 1774, when he one day 
plunged the flick fo far into the remaining part of 
the urethra, that it efcaped from his fingers and 
patted into the bladder. Soon after this he was 
brought to the Hotel Dieu, at Narbonne, and 
there, in the preience of the two phyficians of the 
hofpital, and of eight furgeons of that city, Mr. 
Semin extracted the extraneous fubftance from 
his bladder by the lateral operation. The pati- 
ent; who had been fubjet to a cough and purulent 
expectoration for fomc time before, died fifty- 
eight days after the operation, at the age of thirty 
fix years. On diffe&ion, the lungs were found adhering 
every whereto the pleura, and in their right lobe 
was difeovered a large abfeefs. The pericardium 
adhered to the heart, which was flaccid, with its 
coronary veffels in a varicous ftate—The urinary 
bladder was found with a firm cicatrix •, the reft 
of the abdominal vifeera abounded with adhe- 
fions, but afforded no other particular marks of 
difeafe.” 
Lee it not be imagined however that, fuppofmg 
a habit of debauchery once confummated and in- 
corrigible, the confcquences are equally deftruc- 
tive, whether it leads to the enjoyment pointed 
out by nature, or to felf abufc ; the difference is 
immenfc, and intirely to the diiadvantage of the 
latter ; and though this difference depends upon 
circumftances whofe importance cannot be fully 
comprehended, except by phyficians or perfons 
competently acquainted with the nature of our 
frame and the tendencies of our mental faculties, 
it is not the lefs real on that account. Among 
thefe circumftances, of thole that affeeft the body, 
the principal are, firft, the facility of obtaining a 
degree of gratification with an imperfect ereftion ; 
a mold dangerous practice, which tends to deftroy 
the tone of the nerves any other, and 
to bring on a paralyfis of the organs of generation, 
and confequendy total impotence; fecondly, the 
commifiion of the a£t in a pofition or attitude (as 
fitting or ftanding)highly injurious to the muffles 
of the legs, thighs and back, and which by repe- 
tition never fails to induce a difeafed ftate of fome 
or all of them ; for as all the parts of the body 
are then drained to the moft violent degree of 
tendon, the fmalleft additional labour is fure to 
hurt them ; and laftly, the want of a corretpond- 
ing infpiration to compenfate for the neceffary exp I- ration: the importance of the infenfible perforation 
has been already intimated, and it muft be obfcrved, 
that that perfpiration is never fo abundant as in 
the aft of coition; but then one party infpiring 
what the other expires, each fupplies in fome fort 
the waile fuffered by the other ; whereas the maftur- 
bator lofes as they do and gains nothing in return. 
That the mind alfo contributes largely to this dif- 
ference, will be evident when we confider, that 
the mental triumph and exultation, together 
with the abfence of regret and repentance, which 
accompany the enjoyment of a beautiful or defired 
objefl, animate and invigorate the whole frame, 
give new ftrength and fprightlinefs to the circula- 
tion of all the humours, and promote the genera-* 
tion of the animal (pints, thereby taking off greatly 
from the ill effefls which the excefs would other- 
wife have •, while on the other hand the (hame, 
remorfe and defpair that check the guilty pleafures 
of the mailurbator during the very aft, take en- 
tire poffefiion of him afterwards, cncreafing the 
number and aggravating the danger of ail the evils 
that attend it. 
Such are the caufes of danger in venereal 
exceifes in general, fuch thofe in the odious prac- 
tice of felf abui'e in particular ; may the readers 
of this fhort Treatile never know their effefls, other- 
wife than in the following defeription of the vari- 
ous fymptoms, by which the difeafe they give rife 
to is accompanied ! But before we proceed to that 
defeription, it is necefiarv to premiie, that though 
thefe exceifes conftiture the chief fource of 
Tabes Dorfalis, yet it fometimes arifes from other 
caufes; as obflinate venereal gleets, Jong refi- 
dence in hot climates, habitual intoxication, ex- 
ceifive application to fedeutary purluits, &c. &c. 
but as in ail thefe cafes the fymptoms differ more 
in degree than kind, and as the treatment in all (regard being had to the {landing and progrels of 
the difeafe) is alike, it is> unneceftary to enlarge 
upon any of thefe heads in particular. 
What has been faid concerning the double 
fource from which the danger of exceffive venery 
in every fen(e, and mafturbation more than all the 
reft, arc derived, namely, the waile of the leminal 
liquor and convu)five agitation of the nervous 
fyftem, is perhaps diffident to enable our readers 
to judge perfectly of the importance, and nor in- 
accurately of the nature, of the fymptoms by 
which Tabes Dorfalis is characterized. But in a 
matter of this magnitude nothing is to be left to 
conjedtnre, and the fulled and raoft cxaCt defcrip- 
tion becomes indifpenfably neceffary, fo far at 
leaft as an exaCt defcription can apply to a difeafe, 
not lefts remarkable for the irregularity than the 
malignancy of its appearances and effects. 
The fymptoms by which this dileafe for the 
mod part firft betrays itfelf are, a general irn- 
poverifhment of the fyftem and weaknefs of the 
whole frame ; a wafting of the flefh which no cor- 
dial or nourifhment-can retard or remove ; hollow- 
nefs of the eyes and palenefs of face, chequered in 
Ibme perfons by frequent and violent fluffiings, 
wandering or fixed pains, with a feme of unulual 
cold or unnatural heat, or of r.umbnefs upon the 
lighted preffure in different parts of the body, 
efpecially the back, loins, thighs, and legs-, indo- 
lence, laffitude, and fatigue from the {lighted efforts, 
want of breath for the fmalleft exercise, as a ftiorl 
w'alk, particularly in afteep or uneven road; con- 
tinual Iweats, iliflnels of the limbs, twitching or 
trembling of the tendons; {hivering of the win le 
frame from time to time, attended not unfre- 
quently by a feeling as it were of the pricking of 
pins, or creeping of infects down the back. There 
is no appearance of fever in the firft ftages of the 
difeafe; but all the characters of a flow fever ma- nifeft themfelves as it advances, which either con- 
iiimes the patient by degrees, or, changing into 
an acute one, puts a fpeedier conclufion to his {of- 
ferings. 
The unhappy v'uflims of intemperate gratifica- 
tion, though young, aflame all the appearances 
and infirmities of old age; they become pale, 
enervate, heavy, indolent, fpiritlefs ; they feel a 
numbnefs and ftiffnefs in their limbs, with an ex- 
treme fenfibility to all the changes of the weather, 
cold in particular; their hair drops off; their 
bodies are bent, their limbs unable to fupport 
them, and a tottering and unfteadinefs of gait in 
walking, appears through all their endeavours to 
conceal it. A general difrelifh of every enjoy- 
ment and unfitnefs for every occupation feize 
them. The fpinal marrow wafting away, and the 
animal {pints fuffcring a continual and excefllve 
diflipation, the powers of circulation are weakened, 
and both mind and body fall equally into languor 
and decay. 
The ftdmach is ruined and the digeftive facul- 
ties deftroyed ; hence fome lofe all defire of-food, 
while others are no lefs remarkably voracious, but 
recieve no nourifhmenr from what they eat; thele 
two extremes fometimes prevail alternately in the 
fame perfon ; a full meal is fucceeded in fome by 
violent pains of the ftomach, in others by a lethar- 
gick drowftnefs •, others again experience a fort of 
giddinefs approaching to intoxication. The fource 
of nutrition being thus, as it were, dried up, the 
abfence of the repairing powers is felt in every 
part of the machine, and univerfal atrophy is the 
inevitable confequcnce. The infenfible perfora- 
tion is interrupted, the natural heat exhaufled, a 
predifpofition to the (tone takes place, and heats of 
the liver and kidneys are generated. A particular 
and indefcribable pain in the orifice of the fto- mach is felt by feme performs after every a£l of 
excefs, correfponding with and fucceechng an 
agreeable fenfation in the fame place, frequently 
obfervable after a moderate enjoyment of legiti- 
mate pleafure. With the affections of this organ 
are alfo connected the accidents, which a perfeve- 
rance in venereal exceffes brings on the inteftines; 
as violent pains, cholick, tvviftings, &c. obftinate 
conftipation* in moft patients, wafting diarrhea in 
others; in fome few, evacuations of a black or 
famous and preternaturally fetid matter. Habi- 
tual vomitings arc no unfrequent fyrnptom. 
Whether there be any immediate connexion 
between the organs of generation and thofe of 
refpiration, and that fo the affeClions of the, one 
reach neceffanly to the other; or that the general 
impoverifhmenc of the habit, be fufficicnt alone to 
induce 
Are here particularly recommended to all who cannot eafily or 
fafely take the purgatives in common ufe. Without difgulliug 
the moil faftidious palate, or producing lickacfs or griping in 
the moil irritable conftitution, they are Cafe, Ipcedy and moil 
powerful in their effedls. Befides poffeffing in an eminent de- 
gree all the ufual virtues of medicines of this clafs, they arc 
particularly efficacious againflall the difagreeable concomitants 
of pregnancy in women, where laxatives liable to generate 
wind, as well as drailic purges arc carefully to be avoided. 
They infallibly prevent or remove coftivenefs orindigeilion, 
and are the belt remedy again!! the piles and cutaneous erup- 
tions. Perfons difordered by excels in eating or drinking ; by 
long relidence in hot climates, by travel, or violent exerciic, 
will find them as faiutary as agreeable. In d.fcafes incident to 
children, arlfing chiefly from acidity in theftomach and inter- 
tines, they are adminicle red with thegreateil advantage, fafety 
and cafe. If kept in a dry place they will preferve their virtues 
any number of years, not being liable to fermentation or cor- 
ruption. They are fold in packets of as.Bd. and ss. 4d. each, 
at Dr. Smyth’s, Great Suffolk Street, (..haring Crofs, and may 
be had of thofe who vend theDodlor’sMedicines in Greatßritain. 
and Ireland. Each 2s. Bd. packet contains fix papers, and each 
ss. 4d packet contains a dozen papers. A paper is a dole, 
to be taken night and morning in a little honey, drop, milk 
and water, orin any mild Ample liquor, and repeated as occa- 
fion may require. Half a paper is a dole for a child, to be 
* The Laxative Powders, 
taken in the fame manner. induce pulmonary confumption ; certain it is, that 
all who addidt themfelves long to venereal exceffes, 
and in particular to mafturbation, have their lungs 
more 
Though the Laxative Powders are efpecially recommended 
to the public for the removal of coitivenefs, &c. yet, as 
various conftitutions and palates require different forms and 
kinds of medicines, the following preemptions are annexed ; 
N? I. 
R Pil. ex Aloe cum Myrrha gj 
Extradh Jalappte 
Pulv. Piper, long, aa 3] 
Rhabarbari Ruffici gfs 
Olei Origani gt:. x 
Mucilag. Gum. Arabic. S. ft. Pilulae xtvut quarnm 
fumat tres vel quatuor in aftrldHone alvi. 
N? 11. 
R pil. Rufi 
Pulv. Rhabarbari ana 3] 
Calomelanos pp. 3j 
O iei Meuthae p. grt. ix 
Mucilag. Gum. Arabic. Q/S. ft. Pil. xxxvi. Capiat iij vei 
iv pro re nata. 
N? 111. 
R Eledhiarii e Senna 
Pulv. Jalappa: 
Cremor. Tartar 3ij 
Mlfce et cum S. Syr. Zingiberls ft. Eledf. de quo 
capiat Q__. N. M. fublnde in alvi conflipatione. 
N° IV. 
Infus. Sennas 3x 
Tr?e. Sennae 
Jalappse 
Tart. Solub. aa 3ij 
Pulv. Rhabarbari gr. xn 
Tindt. Lavendulae C. 3j 
Mifce ft. Hauftus pro re nata fumendus. 
Perfons afflidted with obftinate or habitual coftivenefs, fhould 
occalionally have recourfe to clyifers of a mild nature, which 
they may themfelves injedt with a proper fyringe made 
cither of elaftic bottle or blocktin. They fhould alfo exercife 
a good deal in the open air—avoid fedentary purfuits, and 
dilute their food fufliciently. 
The pills and eledtuary to be wafhed down with infulion 
of chamomile, or any mild limple liquor, as tea, whey, &c. 
Thofe who take the draught fhould obferve, at the time 
of taking it, to fhake the bottle. The pills, eledtuary and 
draught to be worked oft with warm water gruel. more or lefs, moft often fatally, affe£lech hence 
pains of the breaftand fides, hoarfenefs, extinction 
of the voice at intervals, dry cough, cough 
with purulent expectoration, ulcer of the lungs, 
offenfive breath, &c. Hence alio, the facility 
with which they are put out of breath in walking 
or making any other effort. 
In the general {offering of the whole frame, it 
cannot be expeCted that the head (hail remain un- 
affected. . A burning pain in the membrane of the 
brain is a very common fymptom ; a more gene- 
ral one flill, a heavinefs of the head, attended 
with giddincfs and drowfinefs : while all the or- 
gans otfenfe lofe greatly of their natural acutenefs, 
the eyes in particular fuffer; a of fight 
leads the way through different ftages to a total 
lofs of that ineftimable faculty. A heavinefs and 
pain of the eye-lids become habitual, with an 
accumulation of gummy matter between them, 
which keeps up a perpetual forenefs there. Pains 
and fpafmodick affeCtions of the eyes themfelves, 
with a preternatural dilatation of the pupil during 
the orgafm, frequently take place. Complete 
gutta ferena is no unufual confequence •,, and one 
of the moft frequent, is a fudden obortion of tears 
in reading or directing the fight to any particular 
objeCt, or a continual diftillation of the lacrymal 
liquor. The fcintiilations or fparkling appear- 
ances, which we obferve in the eyes of other ani- 
mals, and experience fometimes in our own in 
coitu (an effeCt of the emotions excited in the hu- 
mours of the eye by the agitations of the whole 
frame j fbew how intimate and immediate a con- 
nexion fubfifts between the organs of generation 
and thofe of fight. 
Noifes in the ears and hardnefs of hearing .point 
out the approach of total deafnefs; a calamity. like all the reft proceeding from the fame fource, 
no otherwife avoidable than by joining a total and 
timely abftinence from the criminal and deftrudive 
gratifications to which it owes its rife, to the moft 
efficacious affiftance that phyfic can give. 
Another fymptom, in appearance little dan- 
gerous, but arifing from a caufe highly lb, the 
impoverifhment and morbid ftate of the whole 
frame, is a fucceffion of pimples, puftules, tetter- 
ous eruptions, fuppurating blotches, &c, on dif- 
ferent parts of the body, conneded, fome of 
them evidently, others more obfcurely, but not 
Ids certainly, with the principal feat of the difeafe ; 
as the forehead, temples, nole, breaft, infidc of 
the thighs, penis, labia pudendi, &c. To this 
fymptom in particular, I wilh to diredthe atten- 
tion both of thephyfician and the patient •, of the 
phyfician, becaufe, whenever it occurs and cannot 
be traced to any other propable caufe, he may 
confider it as an almoft certain indication of what 
is often fo tenacioufly concealed, and yet requires 
fo much to be known, the exiftence of the odious 
habit of mafturbation ; and of the patient, that 
he may receive it as an alarming admonition of 
the milchief he has done himfelf, and as the fore- 
runner of innumerable ills to follow, unlds he 
flops fhort in time. 
As the organs of generation confticute the in- 
flruments of the crime, fo the fevered, if not the 
firfl, exertions of punifhment are direded againfl 
them. We find in the firfl place, that there are 
none of the partial affedions to which the ex- 
quifite fenfibility and extreme ddicacy of ftruc- 
ture of thofe organs renders them liable, that may 
not be produced by this caufe ; as painful priapifms, 
ftranguary, dyfury, heat of urine, complete gleet, 
contradion of the urinary arch. In confequencc of paralyfis in thofe mufcles that operate the 
cxpulfion of the urine, painful tumours in the 
tefticles, bladder, fpermatick chord, penis, &c. 
Nay, fuch a (hrinking and contraction of the pen’s 
and ferotum takes place lumctimes in habitual ma- 
flurbators, as fcarccly to leave any exterior fign of 
virility : but thefe inconveniencics, however trou- 
blefome, form infinitely the final left part of the 
punilhment they fojuilly incur; a general debility 
and relaxation takes place, which renders ereCtion 
impoffible, or allows of none but incomplete 
ones, attended with fuch a depravation' of the 
fcminal liquor, as makes it incapable of impregna- 
tion, even though none of the circumftances ne- 
cefiary to a proper intromiJlion were wanting. 
The union of thefe two circumftances produces 
total and incurable impotence, the moft debafing 
and difgraceful of all calamities, when arifmg 
from our own fault, rendering us juftly an object 
of loathing to one Tex, of contempt to the other, 
and of deteftation to ourfelves. The immediate 
caufes of this dreadful confummation (for its 
remote caufes have been already fufficiently ex- 
plained) are the habitual gleet, and involuntary 
nofturnal emiftions of the feminal liquor, two 
confcquences that too frequently attend venereal 
exceffes ofevery kind, but which never fad to fol- 
low habitual mafturbation. 
It is an univerfal Jaw in animal bodies, that, 
the oftener any part is put in motion, and the 
more it is exercifed to a certain pointy the greater 
firength and aptitude for its particular functions 
it acquires •, but that every degree of motion or 
exercife beyond that pointy tends neceffarily and 
inevitably to weaken, relax and deftroy it : this 
holds good, as well of the largeft muffle, as of 
the fmallcft fibre, and ferves to explain, both why an immoderate repetition of venereal plea- 
lures induces a paralytick relaxation of the muf- 
cles fubfervient to ere&ion, and why, fimilar- 
relaxation taking place in the fibres of the iemi- 
nal veffds, from the two frequent return of alter- 
nate repletion and inanition, they become by de- 
grees incapable of retaining the precious liquor 
tor whofe .reception they are defigned. Hence 
the firft dages of habitual excefs are marked by 
an oozing, either of the true feminal liquor, or of 
that which is Teetered by the proftate glands, after 
every emiflion; fhortly that oozing becomes in a 
manner habitual, and follows every bodily effort 
connected in any way with the parts affeefed, as 
making water, or going to ftool, beipg jolted in 
a carriage or on horfeback, &c. At length the 
irritability of the organs of generation becomes fo 
exceffive, as to produce from the flighted caufe, 
and frequently without any known caufe what- 
ever, not a gradual oozing but a compleat emif- 
flon. The more the different drainers are emptied 
in any part of the body, the greater quantity 
of humours is determined towards them to fupply 
that wade ; applying this to the cafe before us, we 
perceive why, the juices being thus attracted to 
the parts of generation, the red of the body is 
impoverifhed, and fuel furnifhed to the devouring 
flame, which were it not for that fupply would 
go out of itfelf. 
The fmalled quantity of femen elaborated in 
place of what goes off by this continual wade, be- 
comes burthenfome to the weak and irritable 
veffels that contain it, and hadens to be difeharg- 
ed even without an ereftion. In the cafe of the 
oozing fo often mentioned (which when it con- 
tinues for any time and increafes in quantity, con- fticutes a gleet of that kind called by phyficians 
gonorrhea bentgna) it makes a great difference whe- 
ther the matter be furnifhed by the proftatc 
glands, or confifls of the true feminal liquor; a 
running of the former kind is very little danger- 
ous in companion of the latter, which by degrees 
takes away not only all power, but all defire of 
coition, deflroys the fenfibilky of the nerves, and 
induces a paralytick flaccidity of the mufcles of 
the organs of generation, fo that the femen flows 
off without fenfation or erection. This fpecies of 
gleet, not more deftrudive than difficult of cure, 
which has in fo many inftances baffled the efforts 
of the firfl phyficians in Europe, gave way in a 
fpace of time incredibly fhort to the medicine 
hereafter recommended. 
All thefe evils are increafed and perpetuated by 
the pruriency which the mind contracts along with 
the body, keeping up a continual flimulus, and 
doing no lefs harm by obfeene dreams at night, 
than by lafcivious meditations all day. Hence 
thofe frequent and abundant involuntary emif- 
flons of femen during fleep, when the imagination, 
abandoned to the workings of its own habitual 
corruption, conjures up unreal phantoms of en- 
joyment, and to vifionary objeds of impure de- 
light, gives, as it were, “ a local habitation and a 
name," as if it were doomed that the wretched 
vidim of inordinate pleafure fhould have no fea- 
fon of refpite, but labour at the work of his own 
deftrudion by night as well as by day ! The mif- 
chiefs arifing from this particular foufee are the 
more dreadful, as the more incurable; for as we 
have much lei's command over the operations of 
our mental faculties during ileep, than in our 
waking ftate, even thofe who make, and arc pre- pared to keep, the arduous refolution of breaking' 
through their dcftruClive habits, find their efforts 
ineffectual, while, like Penelope’s fuitors of old, 
they fee the work of each revolving day undone 
in the iucceeding night. 
Some or other, often the greateft part, of the 
fymptoms here deferibed, occur in the generality 
of patients, and unite to conftitute the whole of the 
difeafe; there are others rarer or more anomalous, 
occuring lefs frequently, or not fo eafily referable 
to the known caufes of the difeafe. 
Patients, not a few, have been afflicted with an 
amazing and a univerfal rigidity and fpafmodick 
tenfion of the principal mufclcs of the body, fo as 
to be incapable of motion, and unable to make 
the fmalleft effort for their own relief, as to feed, 
drefs, or even turn themfelves in bed, refcmbling 
(pain and the reproaches of their conscience only 
excepted) maffes of inanimate matter more than 
Jiving or human being?. * 
Sharp and acrid humours fometimes fall upon 
different parts of the body, particularly the nape 
of the neck, fpine, loins, and articulations of the 
different joints, attended with tumours, contrac- 
tions and unfufferable pain, eating up and cor- 
roding as they fpread, and inducing weaknefs, 
didortion of the limbs and deformity of the whole 
frame. Spontaneous gangrenes have been known 
to arife in different parts of the body, without 
any other caufe but venereal exceffes. 
Frequent repetition of the ad of felf-abufe has 
been followed in fome inftances by an emiffion of 
blood, inftead of femen. 
Befides the various fymptoms which conftitute 
the effence of the difeafe itfelf, there are many 
dileales, and thofe fome of the mod fatal andob- flinate incident to the human frame, with which 
it has fo dole a connexion as frequently to lead 
to them without any predifpofition in the confti- 
tution of the patient, and always to aggravate 
their dangers and render them more incurable, 
when fuch a predifpofition exifts; of thefe the 
principal are palfy, apoplexy, epilepfy, hypo- 
chondria, hyfterical affections, &c. Few indeed 
there arc who have long addicted themfelves to 
the habit of felf abufe, without labouring under 
fymptoms foretelling the approach of one or 
other of thofe dileafes, or of a complication of them 
all; as nervous tremblings, numbnefs, habitual 
or paioxyfmatick fpafms, habitual drowfinefs 
during the day, and difturbed fleep at night, verti- 
goes, fainting fits, palpitations, fuffocations, invo- 
luntary fighing, weeping, &c. To a crijis of fome 
or other of thefe affe&ions are generally to be 
attributed thofe fudden deaths which fo frequently 
overtake people in the very a6t of coition. But 
there are other difeafes, having in appearance no 
connexion with the original and principal one, 
that cannot be denied to proceed frequently from 
it, asdropfy, jaundice, and all the worft varieties 
of gout. Nor has the difeafed ftate of the habit 
effects lefs fatal in acute than chronick affedtions; 
hence fever, fmall pox, &c. are generally fata! 
to conditurions injured by venereal excefles. 
During convalefcence, the danger of coition is fo 
great and fo imminent, that a rdapfe often, fud- 
den death fometimes, is the consequence. It is a 
fact well known to all practitioners, that a con- 
firmed lues venerea is nearly incurable in habitual 
mafturbators. 
Such are the bodily ills thdt follow an unre- 
firained indulgence of thole defires, which nature has implanted in our breads for the wilcfh ends, 
and which we can neither abufe nor pervert with 
impunity. But how far are thefe from conflicting 
the whole of the punifhment thus incurred ! 
What an alarming addition remains ftili to be made 
to the black catalogue,' in the enumeration of 
thole evils that cffeCt the mind ! The mind, the 
partner, often the prompter, of the body’s excefles, 
is involved in the punifhment as well as in the 
guilt, and finds that punifhment the more intolera- 
ble in proportion to its fuperior delicacy and keener 
fenfe of injury. A progrefiive, but general depra- 
vation of all the intellectual faculties takes place, 
of the memory in particular ; which is frequently 
fo far deftroyed, as to retain no traces of what 
was moft tenacioufly fixed in it. The imagination 
lofes its vigour, the comprehenfion is dulled, the 
conception of the plained things becomes labori- 
ous and imperfeCt. The fentiment of exidencc 
is in a manner extinguilhed, all that paffes has 
the appearance of a dream, or of thofe vifionary 
fenl’atipns that we experience between deeping and 
waking,* unfitted by a perpetual abfence of mind 
for every purfuit, whether of bufinefs or pleafure, 
mental and bodily torment is all that remains to 
remind the unhappy fufferer of his exidence. 
Stupidity, ideotifm, lunacy, mania, frequently 
fucceed, and in one dreadful vortex fwallow up 
every other affeCtion both of mind and body ; 
previous to this horrid confummation the pati- 
ent has to druggie with the moft exquifite and 
tormenting remorfe of confcience : the contem- 
plation of his wretched date, and conlcioufners of 
being himfelf the foie author of it, are punifh- 
ments which he finds equally inevitable and 
intolerable. Uninterrupted anguifh of mind, inte- rior difquletude, he knows not why, diflatisfadHcn 
at all things without any particular caufe, 
defpair of recovery, even when the cure is fartheft 
advanced, fill up the mealure of his ills, and 
occupy all thofe of his wretched moments that 
are not taken up with more tormenting fenfa- 
tions. 
As if it were more criminal to poifon the fource, 
than to divert the dream of natural delight, maf- 
turbation is followed in the weaker fex by confe- 
quences ftill worle than thofe already enumerated ; 
for not only all the above mentioned fymptoms, 
both of body and mind, take place in women as 
well as in men, but there are Ibme peculiar to the 
former, and the difeafe in general feems to pro- 
ceed with greater rapidity in the female than in 
the male conftitution. it is a truth cftablifhed fo 
long ago as in the days of Hippocrates, that three 
fourths of the difeafes to which women arc fubjeCt, 
take their rife in the matrix; this confideration is 
fufficient to fhew the danger of a practice, which, 
ruining that organ in the firfl inftance, brings on 
every calamity that can be derived from fo fertile 
a fource. The bidden and inevitable lots of their 
chief ornament and molt valued treafure, their 
beauty, is the firft punilhment inilided upon them. 
They fall away, their plumpnefs and complexion 
forfake them, their fkin becomes rough, the 
eyes lofe their luftre, the lips their vermillion, 
the teeth their whitenefs, and the breath its per- 
fume. The fhape is generally deftroyed along 
with the face; the weaknefs fuperadded to the 
natural delicacy of the female frame, often pro- 
duces diftortion, even after the growth is 'com- 
pleated ; but as the odious manoeuvre fo often men- 
tioned ( and here mentioned with more than ufual repugnance) generally exerts its fatal influence at 
an earlier period, it may be eafily conceived to 
be abundantly equal to the produ&ion of deform 
unity of every kind. To thefe evils mnft be added, 
hyfterics and vapours of more than ordinary obfti- 
nacy, incurable jaundice, violent cramps of the 
ftomach and back, acute pains of the nofe, jhwr 
alhus in an extraordinary degree, and of a quality 
extraordinarily (harp, and corroding fo as to keep 
up continual forenefs and pain -, prolapfes and 
ulcerations of the matrix ; prolongations and tette- 
rous affedions of the clitoris, barrennefs, proceed- 
ing from a double caufe, the depravation of the 
femen and relaxation of the organs of conception 
and geftation ? and the lafb and word of all thofe 
calamities to which nature has fubjeded the female 
fex, furor uterinus ; a calamity which degrades the 
lovelieft work of nature to a date infinitely below 
the lowed of the brute creation, but which feldom 
occurs unlefs by the fault of the perfon afflided 
with it. mod fhocking accidents have hap- 
pened by the efcape of the indrument of guilty de- 
light into thebladder, fimilar to that already related 
of the Ihepherd in the South of France. But what 
ftands as a Tingle indance of refinement in wicked- 
nefs in ooe fex, is unfortunately too frequent an ac- 
cident in the other. This is alio a proper place 
to mention that indifference, or averfion rather, for 
the legitimate pleafures of the marriage bed, which 
an habitual indulgence in unnatural gratifications 
fo often brings on. This, it mud be owned, 
takes place fometimes in men, but infinitely Ids 
frequently than in women. 
In treating of any difeafe, the cure is the prin- 
cipal part, and that to which all the red is fub- 
fervient: fo much fo indeed, that in a work like the prefent Short Treatife,' if the means by which 
that great end is to be obtained can be inculcated 
by the phyfician, or comprehended by the patient 
without reference to any thing elfe, all that 
relates to caufes or Symptoms is Superfluous. But 
fince in thofe cafes, where the confidence of the 
fufferer can only be gained by impreffing on his 
mind, with more than ordinary force, the dan- 
gers of a malady more than ordinary fatal, there 
are no other means that will lead a pcrfon un- 
accuftomed to medical investigation, to a know- 
ledge of the virtues or defeats of any medicine lb 
Surely, as by making him acquainted with the na- 
ture and effects of the difeafe for which that 
medicine is dcfigned; I have been obliged, in 
my account of the caufes and Symptoms of Tabes 
Dorfalis, to take up a proportion of my reader’s 
time, which may Seem very large in comparison of 
the little that is to be Said concerning the cure of 
that deftrudive and obftinate malady. In almoft all 
cafes it is infinitely eafier to difcover the evil than 
to apply the remedy, and while the catalogue of hu- 
man infirmities is inexhauftibly long, the lift of 
remedies (of thofe I mean that truly delerve that 
name) is miferably Short; my readers therefore 
muft not be furprifed, if I confine what 1 have 
to fay of the cure of this difeafe to a fhort, plain 
and Sincere account of the properties of a medi- 
cine, which the uniform and uninterrupted fuccefs 
of fifteen years pradife, proves to be univerfally 
and invariably efficacious in the cure of every 
Stage and appearance of this difeafe. 
It is a maxim in phyfic, that to know the difeafe 
is half the cure ; but however true ft may be, of 
the morbid aftedions incident to the human frame 
in general, an exception muft be made with re- gard to the malady fo often fpoken of* finceof thofe 
phyficians, in all ages and nations, who arc 
acknowledged to have beft underftood all that is 
poffible to underftand concerning difeafes and 
their cure, few there are, from Hippocrates to 
Boerhaave, whofe names have not been cited to 
give a fandtion to Tome compoficion or particular 
mode of treatment, all ot' which, after enjoying 
a fhort period of unmerited reputation, have 
upon trial been found ineffectual, and funk 
fuccefiively into oblivion and neglect. Bur we 
muft not therefore conclude, that the materia medica 
affords nothing that can oppofe with effect the 
ravages of this fcourge of humanity and difgrace 
of the medical art j nor argue, that fince the giants 
of phyfick have fuffered a fhameful defeat, it is 
temerity in the dwarfs of that faience to enter the 
lifts. We cannot, without impeaching the mercy 
at leaft, if not the juftice of Providence, admit 
that there exifts any evil to which there is not 
a fixed and appointed remedy. The inveftigajion 
of thofe remedies is one of the nobleft employ- 
ments of human induftry, and their difcovery per- 
haps the fublimeft triumph which the intellectual 
exertions of man can obtain. But, as if it were to 
humble our pride, and teach us the nothingnefs of 
our faculties, purfuits and attainments, the decrees 
of Providence have fo ordered it, that humanity 
owes more in this refpeCt toignorance than to learn- 
ing, to common fenfe than to genius, to the fug- 
geftions of aftiduous pra&ice than to the fublime 
fpeculations of theory. Few medicines there are of 
any great and real value, whole difcovery is not 
owing to accident j a truth this, which the phyfician 
who underftands the real dignity of his profef- 
fion, will never be afhamed to acknowledge, and which properly weighed, muft take away all ap- 
pearance of preemption in my offering to the world 
a medicine for the cure of the difeafe, which, I have 
already obferved, the greateft of my predeceflbrs 
have found incurable. Whether or no accident 
has had, in this as in moft other medical difcoveries, 
a fhare that robs the nominal inventor of almoft 
the whole merit, or what particular circumftances 
led to the firft trial of the ingredients that 
enter into the compofition of my Rcftorativc 
Drops, I fliould have no ohjedion to inform the 
public, however injurious that information might 
be to my own intereft, if it was at all necclfary 
to the relief of my patients, or the removal of 
the difeafe againft which my medicine is fo lb- 
vereignly efficacious* 
It is no fmall misfortune to perfons labouring 
under the different complaints dd'eribed in- the 
farmer part of thefe obfervations, that there are 
certain medical fubftances, which, while they 
induce a temporary and apparent amendment of 
their fymptoms, occaiion a real and inevitable 
aggravation of all their ill effects, which give re- 
lief for the prefent, only to make the aid of phy- 
fick afterwards both more neccffary and more dif- 
ficult ; not unlike thofe vail heaps of fuel which 
feem to extinguifh the fire at firft, only to make it 
burn with the greater fiercenefs afterwards. All 
the hot and volatile medicines are of this dafa, 
and fhould be avoided the more carefully, as 
poilbns are the more dangerous when they come 
in the diiguife of remedies. But of ail thefe, the 
very one that is incomparably the mod deftruc- 
tive, recommends itfelf mod powerfully by die 
quicknefs of its operation, as well to the daring and 
unprincipled empirick as to the credulous and unfufpefting patient, although it is certain that it 
can neither be adminidered by the former nor 
taken by the latter, without the immediate rifk 
of murder on the one fide and fuicide on the other: 
my readers muft perceive that I mean cantbarides, 
a remedy (if remedy it may be called) the inter- 
nal exhibition of which is of itfelf fufficient to 
occafion, in the founded and mod robud condi- 
tution, more and greater didurbances than the 
difeafe it is meant to cure. 
The Reiterative Drops, to whole excellence many 
of the moil eminent among my brethren of the 
faculty have borne teftimony, in terms which I am 
not vain enough to repeat, differs as much from 
compofuions of this kind (and it is but juftice to 
the public to declare, that the different compo- 
fitions fo impudently announced every day as 
infallible remedies for barrennefs, impotence, 
feminal weakneffes, gleets &c. are of this kind) in 
the manner of its operation as in its effects; it does 
not aft with that dangerous rapidity which betrays 
the inflammatory quality of the medicines it 
attends, but requires for the full production of its 
falutary effefts, a moderate and by no means 
tedious fpace of time. Its principal feat of aftion 
is the ftomach, reftoring the digeftive powers, and 
fending from that organ new health, life and vigour 
into every part of the frame. As the ftomach 
is in a great meafure the fource from which pro- 
ceed molt of the evils already fo often deferibed, 
fo it muftbe the fountain head of the cure, if I 
may fo exprefs myfelf, and from it the falutary 
flreams mull rake their rife, that are to revive and 
invigorate the whole body. Hence it is that the 
Reftoracive Drops, attacking the evil at the very 
root, eradicate at the fame time the effeft and the caufe; hence their immediate efficacy in enriching 
at once and purifying the juices, by throwing off 
everything foul and fuperfluous, and fubftiruting 
whatever nourifhes and cleanfes ; for we know 
that all the juices of the body either are fecretedin 
the ftomach, or that the materials for their fecre- 
tion are fupplied by that organ. Their great ex- 
cellence confifts in their aptitude to reftore that 
nutritive, gelatinous iubftance, which immoderate 
evacuations had deftroyed, and whole lofs had 
thrown the whole frame into langour and debility, 
and induced atrophy, marafmus, and every fymp- 
tom and fpecies of decay. By thefe means the 
tone and elafticity of the fibres are re-eftablilhed, 
and the found and healthful fenfibility of the 
nerves is reftored, at the fame time that their 
morbid and exceffive irritability is removed; not 
by an immediate adion on the nervous fyflem it- 
felt (for thofe ftimulants that operate in that 
manner are inevitably deflrudive, and the contrary 
of thefe drops in this as in every ,other relpedt) 
but by enriching and purifying thofe fources 
from whence the nerves derive their health and 
foundnefs. They fortify without ftimulating and 
animate without inflaming : they favour the re- 
production of the femen, and ftrengchen at the 
fame time the fecrctory veflels and the refervoirs, 
fo as to infure at once a due elaboration and fuffi- 
cient retention of that liquor; and by that means 
remove radically all the affedions of the genital 
parts in both fexes, as gleets, involuntary emif- 
flons, paralytick flaccidity of the mufcles, Jluor 
albus, &c. fubftituting vigour to impotence and in- 
troducing fecundity in place of barrennefs. Num- 
berlefs perfons, whom imprudence or misfortune 
had reduced to the afliiding neccffity of renounc- ing for ever the confolauons of marriage, have 
become parents by the ufe of thefe drops, and 
received, as ic were, a lecond exiftence in the birth 
of a beautiful and healthy offspring. Some, induc- 
ed by gratitude and a defire of communicating to 
others the relief they had experienced themfelves, 
permitted me to give their names to the world, 
and tcftified with the utrnoft chterfulnefs both 
their own infirmities and the obligations they 
owed my medicine ; I availed mylelf of their 
pcrmiffion, lo long as the Reftorative Drops had 
any need of external reftimony in their favour; 
but their properties and efficacy are at prefent fo 
well known, and their reputation fo widely and 
honourably eftablifhed, that they require no other 
bafis to fupport them ; I have therefore fupprcft 
every thing of that fort in the prefent Edition. 
It only remains therefore, to recommend to all 
thofe who labour under any of thtfe fymptoms or 
complaints enumerated before, for their own fake 
more than mine, to have recourfe to a medicine 
whofe innocence in all cafes is no lefs remarkable 
than its efficacy in thofe for which it is particularly 
designed.* A ihort trial will be fufficient to con- 
vince them, how different it is from thole that 
however to the exhibition of the Reftorative, 
or of any other remedy given with the fame intent, it fome- 
times is neceiTary to cleanfe the ftomach, For this pu’poie, 
an ounce of ipecacuan wine, mixed (in a glafs mortar) with a 
grain or two of emetick tartar, may be taken about two hours 
before bed-time working it off with infufion of chamomile, 
After the operation of the emetick, fomething light, as a 
poached egg and a bit of toaft fhouin be eaten, and a little 
wine and water drank. The following day the patient is to 
begin with the Reftorative, which he is to take agreeably to 
the printed diretftions given with each bottle. 
It is to be obferved, that patients afftidfed with Internal ulcer 
or hemorrhage, ftxould forego all eraeticks and the cold bath, 
for reafons obvious to every medical man. give a temporary relief only to bring on a per- 
manent and habitual aggravation of the difeaft. 
wO _ ‘ 
Thofe who by debauchery ot any fpccies (the 
worft; and molt fhameful in particular; have de- 
ftroyed their conftitutions, form the largeft dais 
among the numbers in whole relief it is fo fover- 
eignly efficacious ; but its good effects are not con- 
fined to rheie : there are too many others whole 
cafes prefent fimilar fymptoms, arifing fromcaufes 
very different, and who every day take the Re- 
ftorative Drops with equal or greater benefit.' It 
cannot be denied that the repeated and exceffive 
ufe of mercury is fufficient, and independently ofany 
other caufe, fo to dellroy the nervous lyffem as 
to bring on a total inability to the ad of genera- 
tion ; the gleets which ill cured venereal infections 
fometimes leave behind them, end not unfre- 
quently in the fame calamity; habitual intoxica- 
tion is known to be followed by the fame confe- 
quences and fcarcely in a lefs degree ; that a long 
refidence in hot and unhealthy climates fhould pro- 
duce fimilar effects, would not be wondered ar, 
when it is confidered, that the great fource of all 
thofe evils is to be found in immoderate evacua- 
tions, and that exceffive evacuations muff neceffa- 
rily take place in the conftitution of an European 
adult, tranfported to a climate fo unnatural to him 
as thofe of either Indies or Africa ; it is no lefs 
certain that, the female conftitution being pecu- 
liarly liable to many of the worft of thofe different 
affedions that make up the whole of the diforder 
in queftion, numbers of that fex every day fall, 
without any fault of their own, into a ftate of dif- 
eafe which is often rafhly and uncharitably inter- 
preted into the puniftiment of a crime too odious 
to name; not to mention that the inadive and 
fedentary of our own fex are frequently afflided 
with complaints of a nature perfedly fimilar and removable by the fame means. If to all thefe it 
be any confolation to be affured, that multitudes 
labouring under their refpedive complaints have 
been, and every day are relieved by the ufe of the 
Reftorative Drops, I can with truth give them that 
affurance, and they may with confidence accept 
it as the earned; of a certain and fpeedy cure, on 
condition that they take my medicine as directed, 
and that their feveral cafes are not arrived at that 
degree of defperate extremity where no medicine 
can do any good. 
Although the efficacy of the Reftorative Drops 
is fuch that they require in moft cafes no affift- 
ance from any thing elfe, yet a due attention to 
air, excrcife, fleep, and regimen, is in all proper, 
and in a few abfulutely neceffary : A few words 
on each of thefe heads will be fufficient. 
The air to be chofen by perfons who wi(h to 
obtain a cure in any of the iaft ftages of the difeafe 
(for prior to that an attention to this circumftance 
is not fo neceffary) fliould be pure, and for that 
reafon cities and great towns muft be avoided if 
poffible : but all country-air will not anfwer the 
end propofed; it muft be dry and temperate 
as well as pure, it hot it exhaufts, if moift it 
relaxes; cold, though far from being beneficial, 
is much Ids huitful than too great heat. * 
Wherever the patient is, he muft not negled 
exercifc: it iliould be moderate at firft and be aug- 
mented by degrees, being always left off before 
* Jones, in his Phyliological Difqxiifitions, p. 627, fays, 
and fays truly, that “ The happieft lituation, and the moft 
promifing toward the enjoyment of life and health, and every 
convenience, is near the bottom of an high hill that hath 
a foutherly expofure, with woods and plantations about the 
head of it; a dry foil of fa Ad and gravel with a mixture of 
loam, and running waters with green meadows before it; or 
the fea with a fteep and clean fhorc of gravel or beach,” too great fatigue takes place. All exercife is bed 
fading, and with regard to the kind of exercife 
mod conducive to health, none is preferable to 
walking, when the patient is able to take enough 
of that. But that being vfeldom the cafe when 
the difeafe has made any progrefs, recourfe mud 
be had to riding on horfeback ; and if the patient 
is very weak, tp a carriage. Under this head 
may be claffed frictions with dannel or a flefh- 
brufh, which in many cafes, are of ufe ; and the 
cold bath, which properly employed, is always 
greatly beneficial. 
Much depends upon a due regulation of deep, 
efpecially as the want or didurbance of that great 
reftorative, is one of the mod didreffing fymptoms 
of the difeafe. To contribute effectually to the cure, 
it fhould be found and not too Jong : the bed way 
of making it fo, is to rife early, take diffident ex- 
ercife and proper food during the day, and fup 
lightly. No affidance fhould be fought from phyfick 
in this refpeCt, except in cafes of the lad neceffiry. 
Food opportunely given, fays Celfus, is the bed 
phyfick : if this be true, as it mod certainly is, in 
other cafes, what mud it be in thole where the 
want of drength and vigour forms the principal 
part of the difeafe ? The greated attention mud 
be paid by the patient both to the quantity and 
quality of his food; he fhould rather eat a little, 
and often, than gorge himfelf with a full meal at 
any one time : and this rule is the more neceflary, 
as a preternatural voracity of appetite is a frequent 
fymptom in this and every other fpecies of decay. 
It is alfo principally to be confidered, that food 
only is of ufe or affords nourifhment that isdigefted; 
that improper food, or food taken in too great 
quantity is often not digeded, efpecially in weak 
domachs, and that food not digeded occafions 
confiderable difturbanCe in the fydcm. Tbofe ali- merits then only are to be made ufe of with mode- 
ration that are of eafy folution and fermentation, 
and not flatulent or acefcent. Animal and vegetable 
food, abounding in efientiai oil Ihould be avoided ; 
alfo high flavoured food that is adheflve and 
glary, as mufcles, raw meat, &c. &c. The ufe of 
jubilances that are vifcid, or gelatinous and adhe- 
flve, as the flefliof ybung animals, gellies, falop, &c. 
is alfo to be interdicted. Young animals yield a 
folution too adhefive and gelatinous; old animals 
too ftrong eflential oil; we fhould therefore fleer 
a mid courfe, chufing fuch as are neither too old 
that have been accullorned to labour 
or exercife, and whofe fibres are minute and delicate. 
Beef and mutton are defervedly in univerfal requeft. 
Beef however, though it agrees with moil flomachs 
and affordis fonfiderabie nourifhment, is not fo eafy 
of digeftion as mutton. It is too high flavoured. 
Veal and lamb in France, Switzerland, and Italy, 
fhould in general be avoided ; but in England, 
where young animals are not prematurely and un- 
feafonably flaughtered, even delicate flomachs may 
now and then eat of either without the fear of 
fndigeftion. Pig is of very difficult, digeftion ; 
the ufe therefore of this food fhould be proferibed, 
as alfo of pork, dried, faked and baked provilions, 
and ftimulating fauces of every kind. Animal food 
is fomewhat better roaft than boiled. 
Domeftick fowls, as the turkey, common cock 
and hen, particularly the pullet of about ten 
months, are of eafy digeftion; fo is a pigeon. 
Ducks, geefe, &c- contain too much eflential oil, 
and are too high flavoured. 
Among game we fhail leled venifon, rabbits, 
hares, partridges, quails, pheafants, woodcocks, 
fnipe, &c. &c. and among fifh, thofe ofthe white 
kind, as whiting, flounders, &c. Salmon, the king 
of freffi water fifh, contains too much eflential oil. and is often, as well as herrings, &c. unfit for vale- 
tudinarians ; lb are (hell fifh, particularly mulcles, 
which have often proved fatal. 
Vegetables are very ufefully employed with 
animal food, and vice verfa \ for animal food 
has a tendency, in weak ftomachs efpeciaily, to 
become putrid, and vegetable food rakes on the 
faccharine, vinous and acetous fermentation ; but 
when mixed,-they mutually correct and promote the 
digeflion oTeach other. For the fame reafon, roots 
are tiled with fifh, potatoes principally. We may 
employ with animal food, cabbages, the inner leaves, 
broccoli, jpinage, French beans, cauliflower, and, 
now and then, properly qualified with pepper, peas, 
beans, or lentils, which, particularly the two former, 
have got a fandtion from long continued and gene- 
ral ule, which the certainty of their being flatulent 
and acelcent will not remove ; for the good they 
do, though little, when added to their gratefulnefs 
to the palate, more than counterbalances the evil 
they fomecimes cccafion by the generation of wind 
or gas. The artichoke is here to be mentioned, 
and with particular diftindtion. It abounds in fa- 
rinaceous matter and fugar, is eafy of digeflion, and 
affords confiderable nourifhment. 
Roots, as potatoes, turnips, parlhips, carrots, &c. 
afford much nourifhment. Ihe root of fcarcity, 
like mod new things has attradlcd much of late the 
public notice; but we confider it as not deferving 
any particular applaule. 
Wealfo ufe fallec advantageoufiy with animal 
food, as lettuce, endive, dandelion, &c. they 
naturally contain, as do moll of the Okra, a very 
bitter juice, which, in a great meafure, is got rid 
of by culture. Cheefe after dinner, if old, afllfts 
digeflion •, if new, loads the ftomach. 
Fruits, we fliall next confider. Such as abound 
in fugar, as dried' figs, grapes, railins, prunes, &c. are beft. The following alfo may be employed :—. 
apricots, peaches, pears, plums, &c. Fruits 
abounding more in .native vegetable acid than 
fugar, as cherries, gooieberries, ftrawberrics, rafp- 
berries, &c, afford but little nourifhmenc. The 
fruits employed fhould be fufficiently ripe, and of 
the very bell kind. 
Apples are moil ufeful, in pie or pudding ;in 
which It are they may conftitutc with advantage, a 
part of the dinner, as may cuftards, &c. Acid 
fruits arc rendered much more nourifhing arid eafier 
of digeft on, by heat and the addition of fugar. 
Cucumbers and melons fhould never be eaten; they 
contain a mucilaginous matter extremely adheifive, 
and when ripe, an eftential oil; they are very dif- 
ficult of fermentation, and therefore of digeftion. 
The hufk of fruits or roots, or rhe fkin of fifh, is 
not to be eaten 
The patients fupper, we before faid, fliould be 
light. It may confift of fpinage and new laid eggs, 
or poached eggs, cold apple-pie, or roafted apples 
or artichoke or afparagus. The roafted apples may 
be rendered palatable with fugar. At all meals it is 
necedary to employ bread well fermented; and, at 
dinner and fupper, to drink good pure water, dif- 
coloured with a little wine ; or very good table 
beer, &c. Spirituous liquors in any form are def- 
trudive ; fbme male liquors not a littlp injurious ; 
half a dozen glades of generous port wine, or claret, 
may be taken, efpecialiy after or during dinner •, 
but great care is necedary in procuring wine una- 
dulterated; particularly, as it is very well known 
that fubftances of the moft deleterious nature, as 
cerufe or litharge, are often made ufe of for 
recovering of wines which had turned four. 
For breakfaft boiled milk and cocoa, or good 
boiled milk, may be ufed ;—or milk pottage, or 
butter milk, or good tea with a good deal of 
cream. Milk is perhaps thagreateft natural Redo- rative forthofe whofe ftomach it will fit on *, unfor- 
runately it difagrees with many perfons, and when 
ever that is the cafe, it miift be immediately laid 
afide. It is often found to be very bad and unfit 
for ufe in cities and great towns ;—but in the 
country, where animals enjoy better health, and are 
accuftomed to range the fields and feed without re- 
ftraint on the falutary and medicinal plants that 
abound on the verdant lap of nature,-—it is found 
to poiTefs confiderable excellence and falutrity. 
The catalogue of aliments here recommended 
is, it may be hoped, fufficiently long to allow every 
patient to felcdt at his own difcrction, a regimen 
that may be agreeable as well as falutary. For it is 
much to bewilhed that no pamful restraint in this 
refpedl, nor obligation of living upon dilagreeable 
food, Ihould retard a recovery which depends in no 
inconfiderable degree upon the patient’s (tare of 
mind, who'for that reafon Ihould endeavour to keep 
himfelf as tranquil and cheerful as poflible, and to 
refill: every attack of defpondency and uneafinefs. 
Nothing now remains but to inftrudt my rea- 
ders how the Reftorative Drops are to be taken. 
The patient is to begin with from twenty to 
thirty drops, infilled in a glafs of water, capillaire 
or other fimple liquor, and to take that quantity 
twice a day, in the morning before breakfaft and 
at night before fupper, till half the contents of 
the bottle is exhaufted, when he is to take the 
lame quantity thrice every day, morning and night 
as before, and at noon. A very (bort trial of this 
fimple and agreeable not Ids than falutary courfe, 
will give him the pleafing affurance that the foun- 
dations of his recovery are folidly laid, and rhat 
nothing more than a little longer perfeverancc is 
required for the completion of the great and de- 
finable work. 
F IN. I S* The Medicines and Treadles may be bad of 
the Doctor, Great Suffolk-ftreet, Charing-crofs, 
and of the following Printers and Bookfellers. 
Mr. Pridden, N?ico, Fleet-flreet 
Mr. Cavil, Middle’ row, Holborn 
Mr. Axte.l, N? i, finch-lane, 
Cornhill 
Mr.Steel, Union-row, Tower hi 
Mr. Bacon, N? 15'“*, Oxford 
Street, oppolite New Bond 
Street. 
Mr. J. Caw, Lady-fta’rs Clofe, 
Lawn Market, Edinburgh 
Mr.R.MarchbankjTeropleLane, 
Dublin 
Mrs. Allc'a William lon and 
’"Mr. T BlHinge, Liverpool 
Mr. Tofeph W7arts, Gofport 
Mr. Samuel Link, Lruggiil. 
Maiditone 
Mr.E.Wills, Bookfelle -, Market- 
■(lrfct Plymouth 
Mrs. Elizabeth Salmon-,Warwick 
Mr. Tomlinfon, Newark 
Mr. Blackway, Utoxeter 
Mr. Robert Raikes, Glocefter 
Mr. Harrop, Maachefter 
Mr. Trewman, Exeter 
Meffrr. Burbage and Son, Not- 
tingham , 
Mcffrt. Ware & Son, W hitehaven 
Meffrs. Meggit and Son, 
Wakefield 
Mr. Cowper, Cambiioge ' 
Mr. Silver, Margate 
Mr. Moore, Poole ■ 
Mr. Wn. Brooke, Bookfdler, 
L'ncoin 
t Mr. Wilkes, Wincheft r 
i Mr. Thomas Brown, Hull 
, Mr. William Eyres, Warrington 
Mr.Thom as Howgrave, Stamford 
1 Mr. Sack, Nevvcaftle upon Tyne 
1 Meffrs. Simmons and Kirkby, 
i Canterbury 
Meffrs. Yarringtch and Co, 
, Norwich 
Mr. Tymbs, Worcefler 
, Mr. Breadhower, For t fn. out h 
Mr. Davis, Leominfter 
I Meffrs. Collins and Co. Salilbury 
Mr. Cniitweb, Bath 
Mr. Drewry, Derby 
Meffrs. Wlight a d Son, Leeds 
Mr. Monk, Cheffer 
Mr. Pine, Briftof 
Meffrs. Wilfon and Spence, 
Book ellers, Yvmk. 
Meffrs. Goadby & Co. Sherborne 
Mr, Wood, Shrews (bury 
Mr. Barnabas Thorne Exe er 
Meffrs. Pearfon ana R< 11aion, 
Birmingham 
Mr. Keyrner, Colchefter 
Mr.Th. Burnham, Northampton 
Mr. Ficher, Rochefter, and at 
‘he Printing Office, Her ford. 
Martin Le nh<B Soltau and Co. 
St. Peterlburg 
fames Haly, Printer, Kings Arms, 
North Main Street, Cork.