The Plague of Lust, Vol. I (of 2)
Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Author: Julius Rosenbaum
Excerpt from The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 of 2: Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityTO Historical Students and Medical Specialists alike it is Of the highest value and interest and in many respects an indispensable addition to their Library. The Object the Writer proposed to himself was a History of Venereal Disease, to trace its existence, symptoms, and incidence, from the earliest notices of its occurrence recorded in Literature onwards. This ambitious program he has only partially carried out in the present Work, which forms Part I. Of the projected Treatise as a whole, and deals with the Disease under its various forms and successive manifestations throughout Antiquity.
Table of Contents
Transcriber's Notes
THE PLAGUE OF LUST,
TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST (GERMAN) EDITION.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
INTRODUCTION.
Conception and Contents of the History of a Disease in general.
Possibility of the History of a Disease in General and of Venereal Disease in Particular.
Abstract of Opinions advanced at various Periods on the question of the Antiquity and First Rise of the Venereal Disease.
General Scheme of Treatment.
AUTHORITIES.
FIRST SECTION.
Influences that promoted the generation of Disease consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.
§ 1.
The Cult of Venus11.
§ 2.
§ 3.
§ 4.
§ 5.
The Lingam and Phallic Worship.
§ 6.
§ 7.
Plague of Baal-Peor.
§ 8.
§ 9.
Brothels and Courtesans111.
§ 10.
§ 11.
Paederastia.
§ 12.
Diseases consequent on Paederastia.
§ 13.
(Feminine Disease)293.
§ 14.
§ 15.
§ 16.
§ 17.
§ 18.
§ 19.
§ 20.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. AUTHORITIES AND HISTORIANS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Authorities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Historians.
INDEX OF GREEK AND LATIN WORDS EXPLAINED IN THE TEXT, AND OF THE SUBJECTS DISCUSSED IN BOTH VOLUMES
INDEX OF AUTHORS EXPLAINED OR EMENDED.
INDEX OF GREEK WORDS EXPLAINED.
INDEX OF LATIN WORDS EXPLAINED.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
FOOTNOTES:
It is now six years ago, during my residence in Berlin, and with a view to a historical Survey of miliary fevers, that I began a closer and more systematic study of the Epidemics of the XVth. and XVIth. Centuries. In the course of these inquiries, my attention was inevitably directed to the subject of Venereal disease, which exerted so powerful an influence at that epoch both on the physical and the moral life of nations. Accustomed as I was to regard History as being something more than a mere quasi-mechanical aggregation of facts, the observation was soon borne in upon me that only through a painstaking examination of the contemporary conditions of epidemic disease could the Venereal Disease of the period be really understood. Consequently, I felt I must isolate this terrible scourge of humanity from the general survey,so general as to be well-nigh all-embracing,and consider it as a phænomenon apart.
Once started on these lines, I occupied myself especially with the subject, and arrived at the surprising result, that the Venereal Disease of the XVth. Century owed its terrible characteristics solely and entirely to the contemporary exanthematic-typhoïdal Genius Epidemicus, which made itself known in the South of Europe by petechial fevers and by the Sudor Anglicus (English Sweating-fever) in the North. I concluded further that the disease was not epidemic at all, merely liable to arise under the epidemic influence; and must consequently have been already extant before the arrival of the said Genius Epidemics.
Time and circumstances compelled me to remain satisfied pr