2. To pass three times under the crucifix without bowing to it. · Part 3

"The last battering engines," says he, "are philters, amulets, charms, images, and such unlawful meanes: if they cannot prevail of themselves by the help of bawds, panders, and their adherents, they will fly for succour to the devil himself. I know there be those that denye the devil can do any such thing, and that there is no other fascination than that which comes by the eyes. It was given out, of old, that a Thessalian wench had bewitched King Philip to dote on her, and by philters enforced his love, but when Olympia, his queen, saw the maid of an excellent beauty well brought up and qualified: these, quoth she, were the philters which enveagled King Philip, these the true charms as Henry to Rosamond."[188]

"One accent from thy lips the blood more warmes Than all their philters, exorcismes, and charms."

With that alone Lucretia brags, in Aretine, she could do more than all philosophers, astrologers, alychmists, necromancers, witches, and the rest of the crew. As for herbs and philters I could never skill of them. _The sole philter I ever used was kissing and embracing, by which alone I made men rave like beasts, stupefied and compelled them to worship me like an idol._[189]

ANTI-APHRODISIACS.

The means best calculated to produce effects contrary to those just treated of are of several kinds, but such as are derived from hygiene are entitled to be considered as the most powerful. Previously, however, to describing the medicinal substances that may be efficaciously employed in moderating, or rather checking, too violent a propensity to venery, some notice must be taken of the diet adapted to insure such a result.

The use of milk, vegetables, such as lettuce, water-purslain, cucumbers, &c., and especially of fruit in which the acid principle predominates, slackens the movement of the heart and of the sanguineous system; it diminishes the animal heat, the chief source of which is in the activity of the circulation; it produces a feeling of tranquillity and of coolness; the respiration being more slow, occasions the absorption of a less quantity of oxygen, add to which, as a less quantity of reparative materials is contained in this description of aliments, there result a less active nutrition, the loss of embonpoint and the complete prostration of every principle of irritability; in short, it is of all diets the one least capable of furnishing fuel to the passions. For common drink mere water, and, if the impulse of passion should increase, a small quantify of nitre, vinegar, or vitrolic acid, may, occasionally be added to the water to make it more cooling.

Other means conducive to the same end are a laborious life, much bodily exercise, little sleep, and a spare diet, so that the fluids may be more easily conducted to other parts, and that there may not be produced a greater quantity than is requisite for the support of the body. Equally valuable

"When there's a young and sweating devil That commonly rebels,"

will be found what Shakespeare recommends--

"A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer, Much castigation, exercise devout."[190]

Should the desire of committing excesses rise to any height, immediate recourse must be had to some serious and mind-absorbing occupation, less nutritious food and drink should be taken, all dishes peculiarly stimulating to the palate avoided, as well as the use of wine and other spirituous liquors.

A cool regimen in every respect was particularly insisted upon by the ancients: hence Plato and Aristotle recommended the custom of going barefoot as a means of checking the stimulus to carnal desire, a suggestion which appears to have been acted upon by some of the monkish orders. The cold bath was considered equally efficacious, while some, among whom may be reckoned Pliny and Galen, advised thin sheets of lead to be worn on the calves of the legs and near the kidneys.

The first and most important of the hygienic means consists in shunning every species of excitement and in having little or no communication with the sex, and the earlier such restraint is imposed, the better. "He that is chaste and continent, not to impair his strength, or terrified by contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not that virtue until those years when Cato could lend out his wife, and impotent satyrs write satires against lust--but be chaste in thy flaming days, when Alexander dared not trust his eyes upon the fair sisters of Darius, and when so many men think that there is no other way than that of Origen."[191][192]

The next means is that of carefully abstaining from the perusal of all publications calculated to inflame the passions, by which publications are meant, not obscene books only. With respect to these, indeed, a great error obtains, for the persons most anxious to peruse them are, for the most part, old, worn-out debauchees, men whose generative powers are, comparatively, feeble, if not altogether destroyed, and who, unfortunately for themselves, require this unnatural and detestable kind of stimulus, while, on the contrary, young men and those in middle life, who had not drawn too largely upon their constitution, and for whom the allurements of nature are themselves a sufficient provocative, regard such publications with horror and disgust. It is not, therefore, we repeat, works of this description which we allude to, but those the perusal of which is more dangerous during the period of the passions--novels, more especially such as, under the pretext of describing the working of the human heart, draw the most seducing and inflammatory pictures of illicit love, and throw the veil of sentimental philosophy over the orgies of debauchery and licentiousness. Nothing is more perilous to youth, especially of the female sex, than this description of books. Their style is chaste, not one word is found that can offend the ear, while the mind of the unsuspecting reader is often tainted and corrupted by the most impure ideas and descriptions clothed in the most elegant phraseology. How admirably does Voltaire stigmatise this attention to a mere superficial (if the epitaph be allowed) purity! "Plus," says he "les mœurs sont dépravés, plus les expressions deviennent mésurées: on croit de gagner en langage ce qu'on a perdu en vertu. La pudeur s'est enfuite des cœurs et s'est refugiée sur les lèvres."

There are two kinds of study particularly adapted to preserve the mind and the affections from the assaults of vice and libidinousness. The first of these is the _Mathematics_, whose efficacy in this respect has been proved by frequent experience. The Venetian lady mentioned by Rousseau in his "Confessions" was not ignorant of this their power, when, seeing the singular effect which her charms had produced upon the, as yet, youthful philosopher, said to him, "_Gianetto, lascia le donne e studia la matimatica_." "James, give up the ladies, and apply yourself to mathematics." It will, indeed, be found that, in all ages, mathematicians have been but little disposed or addicted to love, and the most celebrated among them, Sir Isaac Newton, is reputed to have lived without ever having had sexual intercourse. The intense mental application required by philosophical abstraction forcibly determines the nervous fluid towards the intellectual organs, and hinders it from being directed towards those of reproduction.

After the study of the Mathematics comes that of _Natural History_, which will be found to be almost equally beneficial, requiring as it does, the unremitting attention of the student, his perambulation of the open country, and the personal observation of all animated objects.

This peculiar influence of the above-mentioned studies ought particularly to engage the attention of persons who superintend the education of youth; there being no doubt that the effervescence of youthful passions may, to a great extent, be allayed by directing the juvenile mind to either of those studies, according as the constitution exhibits greater or less ardour and precocity. Sometimes, however, there are found idiosyncrasies which bid defiance to remedies of this description, but, nevertheless, yield to the force of medicine: of such, the following is an instance:

"A man, by profession a musician, of an athletic figure and sanguine complexion, with red hair, and a very warm temperament, was so tormented with erotic desires that the venereal act, repeated several times in the course of a few hours, failed to satisfy him. Disgusted with himself, and fearing, as a religious man, the punishment with which concupiscence is threatened in the Gospel, he applied to a medical practitioner, who prescribed bleeding and the use of sedatives and refrigerants, together with a light diet. Having found no relief from this course of treatment, he was then recommended to have recourse to wedlock, and, in consequence, married a robust and healthy young woman, the daughter of a farmer. At first, the change appeared to benefit him, but, in a short time, he tired his wife out by his excessive lubricity, and relapsed into his former satyriasis. His medical friend now recommended frequent fasting, together with prayer, but these also failing of effect, the unhappy man proposed to submit to castration, an operation which was judged to be highly improper, considering the great risks the patient must necessarily incur. The latter, however, still persisted that his wish should be complied with, when, fortunately, a case having occurred in Paris, in which a person afflicted with nephritic pains occasioned by the presence of a calculus, was cured by a preparation of nitre, at the expense, however, of being for ever incapacitated for the pleasures of love, the hint was taken, and doses of nitre dissolved in _aqua nymphæ_ were given, night and morning, during the space of eight days, and with such success that, at the end of that time, he could scarcely satisfy the moderate claims of his wife."[193]

Some physicians place great confidence in the medicines called refrigerants. The most favourite of these are infusions from the leaves or flowers of the white water-lily (_nymphea alba_), sorrel, lettuce, perhaps also from mallows, violets, and endive (cichorium), oily seeds, and waters distilled from lettuce, water lily, cucumbers, purslain, and endives. In equal esteem are the syrups of orgeat, lemons, and vinegar, to which may be added cherry-laurel water, when given in proper and gradually-increasing doses. Hemlock, camphor, and agnus-castus, have likewise been much recommended as moderators of the sexual appetite.

According to Pliny,[194] the nymphea alba was considered so powerful that these who take it for twelve days successively will then find themselves incapable of propagating their species, and if it be used for forty days, the amorous propensity will be entirely extinguished.

With respect to hemlock, it is too dangerous a medicine to repose confidence in.

The ancients had a high opinion of camphor, a reputation which this drug preserved until, comparatively, a late period, for Scaliger informs that, in the 17th century, monks were compelled to smell and masticate it for the purpose of extinguishing concupiscence; and it was a favourite maxim of the medical school of Salernum[195] that--

"Camphora per nares castrat odore mares."

Camphor if smell'd A man will geld.

This fatal property, however, has been denied by modern medical authorities, and apparently with reason, if the fact be true that such workmen as are employed in extracting this useful vegetable product, and who may be said to live constantly in a highly camphorated atmosphere, do not find themselves in the leash degree incapacitated for gratifying the calls of _l'amour physique_.

There is no doubt, on the other hand, that camphor has been successfully employed in cases of nymphomania, and that several medical writers have asserted its efficacy in neutralising the properties of cantharides, adducing instances which would appear to prove its sedative power: the following one is related by Groenvelt:--[196]

A young man who had taken a large dose of cantharides in some wine, felt at first, a sort of violent itching, accompanied by great irritation in the bladder, and soon after he suffered greatly from extreme heat, together with an intolerable strangury. Bleeding, emulsions, injections, and opium preparations afforded not the slightest relief. Groenvelt prescribed two scruples of camphor in two boluses. The first dose partly mitigated the pains, and the second one removed them entirely. The remedies which were first administered had, no doubt, weakened the inflammation, and the strangury being no longer kept up by the spasmodic state of the urinary apparatus, camphor sufficed to effect a cure. Burton asserts the value of camphor as an anti-aphrodisiac, and says that when fastened to the parts of generation, or carried in the breeches, it renders the virile member flaccid.

Agnus castus, so called from the down on its surface resembling that upon the skin of a lamb, and from its supposed anti-aphrodisiacal qualities, was in great repute among the Athenians, whose women, during the celebration of the Thesmophoria, or feasts and sacrifices in honour of Ceres or Thesmophoria, the legislatress, abstained for some days from all the pleasures of love, separating themselves entirely for that time from the men. It was also usual with them during the solemnities to strew their beds with agnus castus, fleabane, and other herbs as were supposed to have the power of expelling amorous inclinations. Arnaud de Villeneuve[197] exaggerates, almost to a ridiculous degree, the virtue of the agnus castus, asserting as he does, that the surest way to preserve chastity, is to carry about the person, a knife with a handle made of its wood. It was also, and perhaps is still, much used by the monks, who made an emulsion of its seeds steeped in Nenuphar water, and of which they daily drank a portion, wearing at the same time round their loins a girdle made of its branches. Lettuce has also the reputation of being anti-aphrodisiacal. Lobel instances the case of an English nobleman who had long been desirous of having an heir to his estates, but all in vain. Being, however, at length advised to discontinue eating lettuces, of which he was particularly fond, his wishes were gratified by his being blessed with a numerous offspring.

The desire for coition was also supposed to be diminished by drinking a decoction of the pounded leaves of the willow. Vervain, dried coriander, and also mustard, drunk in a fluid state, are also said to prevent the erection of the penis. Alexander Benedictus declares that a topaz having been previously rubbed against the right testicle of a wolf, then steeped in oil or in rose water and worn as a ring, induces a disgust for venereal pleasures, as does also, if we may credit the same sapient physiologist, a powder made of dried frog. The two following prescriptions are also said to be of great efficacy:--

"Da verbena in potu, et non erigitur virga sex diebus. Utere menthâ siccâ cum aceto: genitalia illinita succo hyoscyami aut cicutæ coitûs appetitum sedant."

It has even been asserted that coffee possesses the same property. In the year 1695 it was maintained, in a thesis at the Ecole de Médicine at Paris, that the daily use of coffee deprived both man and woman of the generative power. M. Hecquet[198] relates the following anecdote as a proof of such effect:--

A Queen of Persia seeing some grooms using all their efforts to throw a horse upon the ground, enquired the reason of the trouble they were thus taking. Her attendants gave her to understand as delicately as they could, that it was far the purpose of castrating him.

"How unnecessary is so much trouble," said her majesty, "they have only to give him coffee, and their object will be fully and easily attained."[199]

Most probably the queen spoke from her own experience of its anti-aphrodisiacal effects upon her royal consort.

There are some diseases which are considered as anti-aphrodisiacal, on account of the decided aversion which the patient who is afflicted with them feels for the pleasures of the sexual union. Thus a species of epidemic leprosy is common among the Cossacks of the Jaik, which is attended by pains in the joints and a disgust for copulation, a disgust the more extraordinary, not only because exanthematous diseases, in general excite a desire for the above act, but also inasmuch as this malady, in particular usually attacks persons in the prime of their youth. Another disease analogous to the one just mentioned, the Plica-Polonica, rages, during the autumnal season, in Poland, Lithuania, and Tartary. It is said to have been introduced into the first of these countries by the Tartars, who had it originally from India. One of the most singular phenomena attending this disorder, and which evidently proves the close sympathy existing between the head and the organs of generation, is that when the patient is bald, the Plica not unfrequently fastens upon the sexual parts, and acquires such a length as to descend below the calves of the legs. The mode of treatment, that of mercury and sudorifics, proves the mucous character of the disorder, and, consequently, accounts for its well known tendency to strike the whole animal economy with that prostration of strength which produces a total indifference to the sex.

Continual exercise on horseback was considered by Hippocrates[200] as anti-aphrodisiacal and Van Sweiten commenting upon that opinion, justly observes that the continual joltings caused by so violent an exercise, added to the compression produced upon the parts of generation by the weight of the body, was by no means unlikely to produce a focal relaxation of those organs to such an extent as to prevent erection altogether.

If whatever opposes an obstacle to the gratification of the sexual appetite may be considered as having a place among the anti-aphrodisiacs, certain mechanical processes may be ranked as such. Of these, _fibulation_, from the Latin word _fibula_ (a buckle or ring) was the very reverse of circumcision, since the operation consisted in drawing the prepuce over the glans, and preventing its return, by the insertion of the ring.[201]

The _Fibula_ (buckle) is so called, because it serves to fix together and to re-unite parts which are separated. It was, formerly a surgical instrument which, besides the use now particularly in question, served also to keep closed the lips of any extensive wounds. It is mentioned as being so applied by Oribuse,[202] and by Scribonius Largus.[203] Employed, therefore, as it was for various uses, the _fibula_ appears to have different shapes, now but little known to us. Rhodius[204] has treated of all those mentioned in the writings of antiquity.

Meinsius thinks that the custom of infibulating may be traced back to the time of the siege of Troy, for the singer Demodocus, who was left with Clytemnestra by Agamemnon,[205] appears to that critic, to have been a eunuch, or, at least, to here been infibulated.[206]

Among the ancients, as well as among many modern nations, the laws of chastity and the restraints of honour appeared scarcely sufficient to hinder the sexes from uniting, in spite of all the obstacles opposed by a vigilant watch and strict seclusion.[207] Indeed, what Roman virgin could entertain very strict ideas of modesty while she saw the goddess of love honoured in the temple, or the amours of Venus and Mars celebrated, while the poor cuckolded Vulcan, after seizing the amorous couple in his net, way only thereby exposed to the ridicule of the Olympic Divinities. There can be little doubt but that excess of this description bastardized and corrupted the ancient Greeks and Romans, and that recourse was necessarily had to the _fibula_ when the deities themselves set the example. Of what use, indeed, could be the moral lessons of a Plato or a Socrates, even when enforced by infibulation, if vice was thus sanctioned by divine example? The only aim of such a state of things was to vanquish obstacles. The art of eluding nature was studied, marriage was despised, notwithstanding the edicts of Augustus against bachelors; the depopulated republic wallowed in the most abandoned lust, and, as a natural consequence, the individual members of it became corrupted and enervated from their very infancy.

The infibulation of boys, sometimes on account of their voice, and not unfrequently, to prevent masturbation, was performed by having the prepuce drawn over the glans; it was then pierced, and a thick thread was passed through it, remaining there until the cicatrizing of the hole; when that took place, a rather large ring was then substituted, which was not removed but with the permission of the party ordering the operation.[208] The Romans infibulated their singers in order to preserve their voice:

"Si gaudet cantu; _nullius fibula_ durat Vocem vendentis prætoribus."[209]

"But should the dame in music take delight, The public singer is disabled quite; In vain the prætor guards him all he can, She slips the buckle (_fibula_) and enjoys her man."

They even subjected to the same operation most of their actors:

"Solvitur his magno comœdi fibula. Sunt, quæ Chrysogonum cantare vetent."[210]

"Take from Chrysogonus the power to sing, Loose, at vast prices, the comedian's ring."

"Dic mihi, simpliciter, comœdis et citharœdis, Fibula, quod præstat?... carius ut futuunt."[211]

"Tell me, clasp! frankly, of what advantage are you to actresses and lute-players? To enhance their favours."

"Menophili, penem tam grandis fibula vestit Ut sit comœdis omnibus, una satis Hunc ego credideram (nam sæpe lavamur in unum) Sollicitum voci parcere, Flacce, suæ; Dum ludit media populo spectante palæstra, Delapsa est misero, fibula; verpus erat."[212]

"Una si gran fibula copre il membro di Menofila, che sola basterebbe a tutti i commenianti. Io O Flacco, avevo creduto (imperocche si siamo sovente lavati insiême) che esso sollecito avesse cura delle sua voce; lotta in mezzo la palestra a vista del popolo, la fibula cascó sventvrato; era un' inciso."

Nor were dancers and gladiators exempted from the same operation, especially the latter, in order that they might preserve all the vigour required in their horrible and degrading occupation.

The best description of the _fibula_ is that given by Holiday: "The fibula," says he, "does not strictly signifie a button, but also a buckle or clasp, or such like stay. In this place, the poet expresses by it the instrument of servilitie applied to those that were employed to sing upon the stage; the Prætor who set forth playes for the delight of the people, buying youths for that purpose, and that they might not, by lust, spoil their voice, their overseers closed their shame with a case of metal having a sharp spike of the same metal passing by the side of it, and sometimes used one of another form; or by a nearer crueltie, they thrust a brazen or silver wire thought that part which the Jew did lose in circumcision.

"The form of the first, and also another fashion, the curious reader may here see (being without any immodestie) as they are represented by Pignerius, _de servis_, p. 82. But whatsoever the fashion or invention was, the trust was but fond that was committed to them, seeing that the art of lust and gold could make them as vain as the Italian engines of jealousy in this day. Thus, 'O Lentulus,' says the poet, speaking figuratively to some nobleman, 'it is that thou art married; but it is some musician's or fencer's bastard that is born under thy lordly canopie.'"[213]

[Illustration: PLATE VII., Figs. 1-2, PHALLIC FIBULÆ.]

Winkleman furnishes us with a description of an infibulated musician,[214] it being a small bronze statue representing a naked deformed individual, as thin as a skeleton, and carrying a ring in his _enormi mentula_. Martial, who laughs at everything, speaks of these singers sometimes breaking their ring, and says that it becomes necessary to send them to the fibula-makers in order to have the damage repaired:[215]

"Et cujus refibulavit turgidum, faber, penem, Il di cui turgido membro abbia fabro fibbiato."

The practice of infibulation was very common in India, from religious motives. As a proof of their sanctity, many of the Santons, or Mohammedan saints, as well as other devout persons, bonzes, fakirs, and the like, devoted themselves to perpetual virginity. Whether it was with the intention of placing themselves beyond the possibility of breaking their vow, or of giving evidence of their constancy, certain it is that they loaded their prepuce with an enormous fibula, or ring; and, in their warm climate, where nudity does not shock ideas of propriety or decency, devout women not unfrequently repaired to these _soi-disant_ saints, to admire and venerate such efforts of virtue and self-denial; they are even reported to have knelt down, and, in that humiliating posture, to have kissed the preputial ring, no doubt with the vain hope of thereby obtaining indulgences. In some places, these martyrs fasten their fibula with a lock, the key which they deposit with the magistrate of the town or village. But, nature insisting upon her rights, is often too strong for this self-violence, nor can desire, or the not-to-be-mistaken symptom of it, be opposed, or even prevented, from being gratified; and since the lock, which obstructs the extremity of the prepuce only, cannot hinder a kind of erection, nor, indeed, of effusion of the seminal fluid, it cannot do more than oppose the introduction of the male organ into the receptacle destined for it.

Another description of fakirs were formerly to be seen in India, and, especially, in its southern peninsula, whose custom it was to traverse the country in a state of nudity, and who had been rendered impotent by the following regimen. The children destined for this penitential state are taken away from their parents at the age of six or seven years, and made to eat, daily, a quantity of the young leaves of a tree called _Mairkousie_. At first, the dose given them is not larger than a filbert. This regimen must be persisted in until the party reaches the age of five-and-twenty years, the dose being increased till, at the maximum, it is as large as a duck's egg. During all this time, the devotee is subjected to no other regimen, except a light purge, once in six months, by means of _Kadoukaie_, or the black mirobolan. Although rendered completely impotent by this mode of treatment, so far from their physical strength and beauty of form being diminished or deteriorated thereby, they are, on the contrary, improved by it; the enjoyment of constant good health is likewise almost an invariable consequence.

Infibulation is not confined to the male sex exclusively, for it is practised on girls and women in India, Persia, and the East, generally, and most commonly consists in joining together the female sexual organ, or closing the labia of the vagina by a suture made with waxed thread, a small aperture being left for the egress of the urine and the menstrua.

Linschet witnessed the operation at Pegu, as did also Schultz, Brown saw it performed, at Darfour, on females from eleven to twelve years of age.[216] At the time of marriage, a cut of the bistouri dissevers the parts which have been closed by the effects of the suture. Sometimes jealousy contents itself by passing a ring through the parts. Women, as well as girls, are subjected to this disgusting operation, the only difference being that the ring of the latter cannot be removed, while that of the former has a kind of lock, the key of which is in the husband's possession. Pallas informs us that the beautiful nation of the Tcherkesses, or Circassians carefully preserve the virginity of their girls by means of a leathern girdle, or rather corslet made of skin, and sewn immediately upon the naked body. The husband alone has the right of severing this corslet, which he does, on the nuptial night.

When the violation of virgin chastity and conjugal fidelity became more frequent, fathers and husbands had recourse, even in Europe, to a mechanical contrivance for the purpose of preserving intact the honour of the family. This was a kind of padlock, which shut up all access to the seat of voluptuousness. The invention is attributed to one Francesco di Carrera, an imperial judge of Padua, who lived about the close of the 15th century. The machine itself was called the _Girdle of Chastity_. Francesco's acts of cruelty brought him to the scaffold, where he was strangled in 1405, by a decree of the Senate of Venice. One of the principal accusations brought against him was the employment of the _Girdle of Chastity_, for his mistresses, and it is said by Misson[217] that a box filled with these articles was for a long time preserved in the palace of St. Mark, at Venice. Rabelais speaks of these girdles, which he calls _Ceintures_ á la Bergamasque, "Nay," says he, Pantagruel, "may that Nick in the dark cellar, who hath no white in his eye, carry me quiet away with him, if, in that case, whenever I go abroad from the palace of my domestic residence, I do not, with as much circumspection as they use to ring mares in our country, to keep them from being saillied by stoned horses, clap a Bergamesco lock upon my wife."

Brantome has the following notice of these chastity preservers. "Des temps du roi Henri il yeut un certain Quinquallier qui apporte une douzaine de certains engins à la foire de St. Germain pour brider le cas des femmes. Ces sortes de cadenas estoient en usage à Venise dès devant l'année 1522, estoient faites de fer et centuroient comme une ceinture, et venoient à se prendre par le bas, et se fermer à clef, si subtilement faites, qu'il n'estoit pas possible que la femme en estant bridée und fois, s'en peust jamais prévaloir pour ce doux plaisir, n'ayant que quelques petits trous menus pour servir à pisser."[218]

An endeavour was made to introduce these Bernasco padlocks into France during the reign of Henry II., and a shop was opened by an Italian at the fair of St. Germain, where they were publicly sold, and in such numbers, that the French gallants, becoming alarmed, threatened to throw the vendor into the Seine, if he did not pack up his merchandise and decamp, which he immediately did for fear that the menace might be put in execution.

Voltaire describes the Cadenas as originating with Pluto, who, jealous of his wife Proserpine, was advised:

Qu'un cadenas, de la structure nouvelle Fut le garant de sa fidélité, A la vertu par la force asservie, Plus ne sera l'amant favorisé. En un moment, feux, enclumes, fourneaux Sont préparés aux gouffres infernaux; Tisiphone, de ces lieux, serrurière, Au cadenas met la main, la première, Elle l'achève et des mains de Pluton Proserpine reçut ce triste don, Or ce secret aux enfers inventé Chez les humains tôt après fut porté Et depuis ce temps dans Venise et dans Rome Il n'est pédant, bourgeois, ou gentilhomme Qui pour garder l'honneur de sa maison De cadenas n'ait sa provision.[219]

This sage advice, a loud applause From all the damned assembly draws; And straight, by order of the State, Was registered on brass by fate; That moment, in the shades below, They anvils beat and bellows blow. Tisiphoned, the blacksmith's trade Well understood; the locks she made: Proserpina, from Pluto's hand Receiving, wore it by command. This lock, which hell could frame alone, Soon to the human race was known; In Venice, Rome, and all about it, No gentlemen or cit's without it.[220]

We shall close this our third essay with the amusing summary of anti-aphrodisiacal remedies, as given by Rabelais.

"You say," said the physician Rondibilis to Panurge, "that you feel in you the pricking stings of sensuality, by which you are stirred up to venery. I find in our faculty of medicine, and we have founded our opinion therein upon the deliberate resolution and final decision of the ancient Platonics, that carnal concupiscence is cooled and quelled five several ways:--

"_Firstly_. By the means of wine. I shall easily believe that quoth Friar John, for when I am well whittled with the juice of the grape, I care for nothing else, so I may sleep. When I say, quoth Rondibilis, that wine abateth lust, my meaning is, wine immoderately taken; for by intemperance, proceeding from the excessive drinking of strong liquor, there is brought upon the body of such a swill-down bouser, a chillness in the blood, a slackening in the sinews, a dissipation of the generative seed, a numbness and hebetation of the senses, with a perversive wryness and convulsion of the muscles, all which are great lets and impediments to the act of generation. Hence it is that Bacchus, the god of bibbers, tipplers, and drunkards, is most commonly painted beardless and clad in a woman's habit, as a person altogether effeminate, or like a libbed eunuch. Wine, nevertheless, taken moderately worketh quite contrary effects, as is implied by the old proverb, which saith,--That Venus taketh cold, when not accompanied by Ceres and Bacchus.[221] This opinion is of great antiquity as appeareth by the testimony of Diodorus the Sicilian, and confirmed by Pausanias, and it is usually held among the Lampsacians, that Don Priapus was the son of Bacchus and Venus.

"_Secondly_. The fervency of lust is abated by certain drugs, plants herbs and roots, which make the taker cold, maleficiated, unfit for, and unable to perform the act of generation; as hath often been experimented by the water-lily, Heraclea, Agnus-Castus, willow-twigs, hemp-stalks, woodbine, honeysuckle, tamarisk, chastetree, mandrake, bennet keebugloss, the skin of a hippopotamus, and many other such, which, by convenient doses proportioned to the peccant humour and constitution of the patient, being duly and seasonably received within the body--what by their elementary virtues on the one side, and peculiar properties on the other, do either benumb, mortify and beclumpse with cold, the prolific semence, or scatter and disperse the spirits which ought to have gone along with, and conducted the sperm to the places destined and appointed for its reception,--or lastly, shut up, stop and obstruct the way, passages, and conduits, through which the seed should have expelled, evacuated, and ejected. We have, nevertheless, of those ingredients, which, being of a contrary operation, heat the blood, bind the nerves, unite the spirits, quicken the senses, strengthen the muscles, and thereby rouse up, provoke, excite and enable a man to the vigorous accomplishment of the feat of amorous dalliance. I have no need of those, quoth Panurge, God be thanked and you, my good master. Howsoever, I pray you, take no exception or offence at these my words; for what I have said was not out of any ill-will I did hear to you, the Lord, he knows.

"_Thirdly_. The ardour of lechery is very much subdued and mated by frequent labour and continual toiling. For by painful exercises and laborous working so great a dissolution is brought upon the whole body, that the blood which runneth alongst the channels of the vein thereof for the nourishment and alimentation of each of its members, had neither time, leisure, nor power to afford the seminal resudation or superfluity of the third concoction, which nature most carefully reserves for the conservation of the individual, whose preservation she more heedfully regardeth than the propagation of the species and the multiplication of human kind. Whence it is that Diana is said to be chaste, because she is never idle, but always busied about hunting. For the same reason was a camp, or leaguer of old called--Castrum,[222] as if they would have said--Castum; because the soldiers, wrestlers, runners, throwers of the bar, and other such like athletic champions, as are usually seen in a military circumvallation, do incessantly travail and turmoil, and are in a perpetual stir and agitation. To this purpose, also, Hippocrates writeth in his book, _De Aere, Aqua et Locis_:--That in his time there were people in Scythia as impotent as eunuchs in the discharge of a venerean exploit; because that, without any cessation, pause or respite, they were never from off horseback, or otherwise, assiduously employed in some troublesome and molesting drudgery.

"On the other part, in opposition and repugnancy hereto, the philosophers say, that idleness is the mother of luxury. When it was asked Ovid, why Ægisthus became an adulterer? he made no other answer than this, Because he was idle.[223] Who were able to rid the world of loitering and idleness might easily disappoint Cupid[224] of all his designes, aims, engines and devices and so disable and appal him, that his bow, quiver, and darts should from thenceforth be a mere needless load and burthen to him; for that it could not then lie in his power to strike or wound any of either sex with all the arms he had. He is not, I believe so expert an archer as that he can hit the cranes flying in the air, or yet the young stags skipping through the thicket, as the Parthians knew well how to do; that is to say, people moiling, stirring, and hurrying up and down, restless and without repose. He must have those hushed, still, quiet, lying at a stay, lither and full of ease, whom he is able to pierce with all his arrows. In conformation thereof, Theophrastus being asked on a time, What kind of beast or thing he judged a toyish, wanton love to be? he made answer, That it was a passion of idle and sluggish spirits.[224] From which pretty description of tickling-tricks, that of Diogenes, the Cynic, was not very discrepant when he defined lechery--The occupation of folk destitute of all other occupation. For this cause the Sicyonian sculptor Canachus,[225] being desirous to give us to understand that slowth drowsiness, negligence, and laziness, were the prime guardians and governesses of ribaldry, made the statue of Venus, not standing, as other stone-cutters had used to do, but sitting.

"_Fourthly_. The tickling pricks of incontinency are blunted by an eager study; for from thence proceedeth an incredible resolution of the spirits, that oftentimes there do not remain so many behind as may suffice to push and thrust forwards the generative resudation to the places thereto appropriated, and therewithal inflate the cavernous nerve, whose office is to ejaculate the moisture for the propagation of human progeny. Lest you should think it is not so, be pleased but to contemplate a little the form, fashion, and carriage of a man exceeding earnestly set upon some learned meditation and deeply plunged therein, and you shall see how all the arteries of his brains are stretched forth, and bent like the string of a cross-bow, the more promptly, dexterously and copiously to suppeditate, furnish and supply him with store of spirits, sufficient to replenish and fill up the ventricles, seats, tunnels, mansions, receptacles and cellules of common sense--of the imagination apprehension, and fancy--of the ratiocination, arguing, and resolution--as likewise, of the memory, recordation, and remembrance; and with great alacrity, nimbleness, and agility, to run, pass and course from one to the other, through those pipes, windings, and conduits, which to skilful anatomists are perceivable at the end of the wonderful net, where all the arteries close in a terminating point; which arteries taking their rise and origin from the left capsule of the heart, bring, through several circuits, ambages, and anfractuosities, the vital spirits, to subtilize and refine them in the ætherial purity of animal spirits.

Nay, in such a studiously meditating, musing person, you may espy so extravagant raptures of one, as it were out of himself, that all his natural faculties for that time will seem to lie suspended from each their proper charge and office, and his exterior senses to be at a stand. In a word, you cannot choose than think, that he is by an extraordinary ecstasy quite transported out of what he was or should be; and that Socrates did not speak improperly when he said, That philosophy was nothing else but a meditation upon death. This possibly is the reason why Democritus[226] deprived himself of the sense of seeing, prizing, at a much lower rate, the loss of his sight, than the diminution of his contemplation which he had frequently found disturbed by the vagrant flying-out strayings of his unsettled and roving eyes.[227] Therefore is it that Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, tutoress and guardianess of such as are diligently studious and painfully industrious, is and hath been still accounted a virgin. The Muses upon the same consideration are esteemed perpetual maids: and the Graces, for the same reason, have been held to continue in a sempiternal pudicity.

"I remember to have read that Cupid,[227] on a time, being asked by his mother Venus, why he did not assault and set upon the Muses, his answer was, that he found them so fair, so neat, so wise, so learned, so modest, so discreet, so courteous, so virtuous, and so continually busied and employed,--one in the speculation of the stars,--another in the supputation of numbers,--the third in the dimension of geometrical quantities,--the fourth in the composition of heroic poems,--the fifth in the jovial interludes of a comic strain,--the sixth in the stately gravity of the tragic vein,--the seventh in the melodious disposition of musical airs,--the eighth in the completest manner of writing histories and books on all sorts of subjects, and--the ninth in the mysteries, secrets, and curiosities of all sciences, faculties, disciplines and arts whatsoever, whether liberal or mechanic,--that approaching near unto them he unbent his bow, shut his quiver, and extinguished his torch, through mere shame and fear that by mischance he might do them any hurt or prejudice. Which done, he thereafter put off the fillet wherewith his eyes were bound, to look them in the face, and to hear their melody and poetic odes.

There took he the greatest pleasure in the world, that many times he was transported with their beauty and pretty behaviour, and charmed asleep by their harmony, so far was he from assaulting them or interrupting their studies. Under this article may be comprised what Hippocrates wrote in the afore-cited treatise concerning the Scythians, as also that in a book of his intituled, Of Breeding and Production, where he hath affirmed all such men to be unfit for generation as have their parotid arteries cut--whose situation is behind the ears--for the reason given already, when I was speaking of the resolution of the spirits, and of that spiritual blood, whereof the arteries are the sole and proper receptacles; and that likewise he doth maintain a large portion of the parastatic liquor to issue and descend from the brains and backbone.

"_Fifthly_. By the too frequent reiteration of the act of venery. There did I wait for you, quoth Panurge, and shall willingly apply it to myself, whilst any one that pleaseth may, for me, make use of any of the four preceding. That is the very same thing, quoth Friar John, which Father Scyllion,[228] Prior of St. Victor, at Marseilles, calleth maceration and taming of the flesh. I am of the same opinion, and so was the hermit of Saint Radegonde, a little above Chinon; for, quoth he, the hermits of Thebaïde can no way more aptly or expediently macerate and bring down the pride of their bodies, daunt and mortify their lecherous sensuality, or depress and overcome the stubbornness and rebellion of the flesh, than by dufling and fanfreluching five and twenty or thirty times a day."

FOOTNOTES

[1] For a representation of the Egyptian "Phallus" see Plate I., figures 1, 2, and 3. These are taken from the "_Recueil d'Antiquités Egyptiennes_" by the Comte De Caylus, who, speaking of the first of them, observes: "Cette figure représente le plus terrible Phallus qu'on ait vû, proportion gardée, sur aucun ouvrage. On n'ignore point la vénération que les Egyptiens avaient pour cet emblême, il est vrai; mais je doute que cette nation sage et peu outrée dans sa conduite eût consacré dans les premiers siécles, c'est a dire, avant le régne des Ptolemées, une pareille figure."

[2] Historia de los Incas. Cap. VI.

[3] In the church of St. Peter's at Rome, is kept, _en secret_, a large stone emblem of the creative power, of a very peculiar shape, on which are engraved [Greek: Zeus Sôtêr]. Only persons who have great interest can get a sight of it. Is it from this stone having some peculiar virtue that those _preux chevaliers_, the cardinals, keep it so closely? Perhaps they choose to monopolize the use of it? I never saw it, but I know that it was at St Peter's.--HIGGINS.

[4] See Plate II., figure 1. This figure of the Lingham presents a kind of Trinity, the vase represents Vishnu, from the middle of which rises a column rounded at the top representing Siva, and the whole rests upon a pedestal typifying Brahma. From the _Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine_, par M. Sonnerat, depuis 1774 jusqu'en 1781. Tom. I., p. 179.

[5] _Voyage aux Indes et à la Chine_, par Sonnerat, depuis 1774 jusqu'en 1781; Tom. I. liv. 2.

[6] See plate III., figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.

[7] Henry O'Brien, Round Towers of Ireland. London, 1834. Chapter viii.

[8] See Plate IV., figure 1.

[9] Samuel II., chap. vi., v. 20, 21, 22, 23.

[10] The indispensable and inseparable appendages to the male organ have thus been eulogized by Giov. Francesco Lazzarelli in his poem entitled, La Cicceide, p. 120.

LE PREROGATIVI DE'TESTICOLI.

Gran sostegni dei mondo, almi C ...... Del celeste Fattor, opre ingegnose; Da caricare i piccoli cannoni, Ond' armata va l'uom, Palle focose: Robusti, anchorè teneri Palloni, Con cui guiocan tra lor, mariti e spose; Del corpo uman spermatici Embrioni; De' venerei piacer fonti amorose; Magazzini vitali, ove Natura L'uman seme riposto, a' figli suoi D' assicurar la succession procura! etc.

[11] Genesis, chap. xxiv. v. 2, 3.

[12] Genesis, chap. xlvii. v. 29.

[13] Mémoires sur l'Egypte, publiés pendant les Campagne de _Bonaparte_, Partie, 2, p. 193.

[14] The Latin text of the law is as follows:--"Si mulier stuprata lege cum illo agere velit, membro virili _sinistra prehenso et dextra reliquos sanctorum imposita, juret, super illas quod is per vim se, isto membro, vitiaverit_."--Voyage dans le Département du Finisterre, Tom. iii., p. 233.

[15] Hunc locum tibi dedico consacroque, Priape, Quæ domus tua, Lampsaei est, quaque silva, Priape. Nam te præcipue in suis urbibus colit, ora Hellespontia, cæteris ostreosior oris.--Catullus, Carm. xviii.

[16] See Plate II., figure 2.

[17] From possessing such an article of VIRTU, his Eminence must surely have been of the opinion of Cardinal Bembo--_that there is no sin below the navel_.

[18] Falce minax et parte tui majore, Priape, Ad fontem quæso, dic mihi, qua sit iter.--Priapeia Carm.

[19] See note [21], p. 11.

[20] See S. Augustine, Civ. Dei., lib. 6, cap. 9, and Lactantius _De falsa religione_. lib. I.

[21] See Plate I., figure 4. This phallus was found at Pompeii over a baker's door.

[22] Thus his statue was placed in orchards as a scare-crow to drive away superstitious thieves, as well as children and birds.

Pomarii tutela, diligens _rubro_ Priape, furibus minare mutino.--Priapeia Carm. 73.

[23] Ind. Antiq. ii., p, 361.

[24] Ind. Antiq., vol. I., p. 247.

[25] Voyage dans la Chine par Avril, Liv. iii., p. 194.

[26] Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 269.

[27] Worship of Priapus.

[28] _Ibid._, p 48.

[29] For some ingenious and learned observations on the Tau or Crux Ansata see Classical Journal, No. 39, p. 182.

[30] Chap. ix., v. 3. "And the Lord said unto him: Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the forehead of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."

[31] For a description of some of the above-mentioned Crosses, see Plate V., also "_Voyage dans la basse et la haute-Egypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte_, 1802 et 1829," par Denon--Planches 48, 78.

[32] This city was the birth place of the deity Priapus, whose orgies were there constantly celebrated. Alexander the Great, in his Persian expedition, resolved to destroy Lampsacus on account of its many vices, or rather from a jealousy of its adherence to Persia; but it was saved by the artifice of the philosopher Anaxamenes, who, having heard that the king had sworn to refuse whatever he should ask him, begged him to destroy the city.

[33] Journal d'Henri III. par l'Etoile. Tom. 5.

[34] Historie Religieuse du Calendrier, p. 420.

[35] Johannis Goropii Becani, Origines Antwerpianæ, 1569, lib. i., p.p. 26 and 101.

[36] The foreskins, still extant, of the Saviour, are reckoned to be twelve in number. One was in the possession of the monks of Coulombs; another at the Abbey of Charroux; a third at Hildesheim, in Germany; a fourth at Rome, in the Church of St. Jean-de-Latran; a fifth at Antwerp; a sixth at Puy-en-Velay, in the Church of Notre Dame, &c., &c. So much for relics!

[37] Dulaure, Singularités Historiques de l'Historie de Paris, p. 77. Paris, 1825.

[38] Letter of Sir W. Hamilton prefixed to Payne Knight's "Worship of Priapus."

For a representation of the ancient, _Ex voto_, in silver, the size of the original see Plate VI., figure 1. It is copied from an additional plate inserted by M. Panizzi, late librarian of the British Museum, in the fly-leaf of Payne Knight's "_Worship of Phallus_."

[39] To these the canon law adds sorcery, ligature or point-tying.

[40] Zachais, Quæst. medico. leg. lib. II., tit. I, quæst. I.

[41] See _Lectures on Comparative Anatomy_ by Sir Everard Home, Bart. Vol. III., p. 166. London 1823.

[42] Lib. I., Epigram. 91.

[43] Juvenal Sat. I., vv. 204, 105.

[44] Orlando Furioso, Can. I, stanz. 49, 60.

[45] Rapport, Tom. I., p. 335.

[46] Sir Charles Morgan, Philos. of Morals, p. 25.

[47] Nosographie philosophique.

[48] Medical Essays published by a society in Edinburgh, vol. I., p. 270. Case reported by W. Cockburn, M. D.

[49] Rapport, tome II., p. 422.

[50] Essays, Book I., chap. xx. Cotton's translation.

[51] Hippocrates de Aer: aqua et loco, 210.

[52] Treatise on the Venereal Disease.

[53] Comment. de Aer: aqua et loco, 210.

[54] Voltaire, Pucelle d'Orléans, Chant. xii.

[55] Bigarrures du Seigneur des Accords.

[56] Herodotus Enterpe clxxxii.

[57] De Legibus, lib. ii.

[58] Ecologa viii.

[59] Amor., lib. iii., Eleg. 6.

[60] De Asino Aureo, lib. ii., v. 3.

[61] Tacitus Annal., lib. iv., 22.

[62] Lib. v., Sentent, tit. 23.

[63] De rebus gestis Francorum, lib. 4. cap. 94.

[64] Histoire des Français.

[65] Nominated to the Bishopric of Evreux by Henry IV. of France. His favourite authors were Rabelais and Montaigne.

[66] Demonologie, 1603, Book I., Chap. III., p. 12.

[67] "Hercules, puer, L. Virgines, una nocte, gravidus reddit."--Cœlius, lib. 14, cap. 8.

[68] Traité premier de la dissolution de Mariage pour l'impuissance et froideur de l'homme, ou de la Femme, par Antoine Hotman, p. 63.

[69] Tableau de l'Amour considéré dans l'état du Mariage, par II., chap. 2, art. 3.

[70] Art. Portugal. rem. F.

[71] Boileau Despréaux, Satires, Satire VIII.

[72] Willick's Lectures on Diet and Regimen, p. 538, et seq.

[73] From [Greek: mandra], relating to cattle, and [Greek: agaron], baneful, injurious.

[74] Genesis, Chap. xxx., v. 14, 15, 16, 17. The last verse must be considered as decisive of the efficacy of the mandrake.

[75] Solomon's Song, chap. vii. v. 13.

[76] See the word _Dudaïm_, in Dr. Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature. The learned doctor has given a sketch of the plant Mandragora, a copy of which the reader will find in plate VI.

[77] Onkelos was a celebrated rabbin contemporary with St. Paul, and to whom the Targum, that is, a translation or paraphrase of the Holy Scriptures, is attributed.

[78] Lib. IV., cap. 76.

[79] Quoted by Oct. Celsius in his "_Hierobotanicon_," Part I., par. 5. art. _Dudaim_, from Epiphan: Physiolog. c. 4.

[80] Pliny's "Natural History," Vol. IV., p. 397 (Bohn's Classical Library).

[81] Columella _De hortorum Cultu._, v. 19, 20.

[82] See a manuscript Interrogatory still preserved in the "Bibliothèque Nationale," Fonds de Baluze, Rouleau 5.

[83] See "_De l'imposture des Diables_," par Jacques Grévin, Tom. IV., p. 359.

[84] From Weir "De Mag: demonia:" Cours Complet d'agriculture par l'Abbé Rosier, Tom. VI., p. 401.

[85] Récollections des choses merveilleuses Advenues en notre temps par George Chastelain, Edition de Coustelier, p. 150.

[86] Lettres d'Amabed, Vol. XXXIV., p. 261. Edition Beuchot, Paris.

[87] Mandragola, Atto II. Scena 6. See also La Fontaine's tale of "La Mandragore," founded upon the above comedy.

[88] See Warburton on Shakespear's Othello, Act I., Scene 8.

"_By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks._"

[89] See Speed's Historie of Great Britaine. Richard III. Book II., page 913 folio edition, 1632.

[90] Exercitatio de Rachelis Deliciis, 420, 1678.

[91] Atlantica illustrata, 1733.

[92] Hierobotanicon, 1745.

[93] "Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter, A. D., 1697."

[94] _Orchis_ is a Greek word signifying _testicle_, a name given by the ancients to this plant on account of the supposed resemblance of its root to that organ.

[95] Eustathii Commentarii ad Homerum, Vol. I., p. 325, 403-9. Editio Lipsiæ, 1827.

[96] Juliani Calixenæ Epistola.

[97] "Amatorio poculo furorem versus, quum aliquot libros per intervalla conscripserat."

[98] Epist. dissuas: ad Rufinum C. 22. Tom XII. p. 245, ad Varon.

[99] Remarks on the life and poems of Lucretius, p. vi. (Bohn's Classical Library).

[100] Probably to Anticyra, a Greek town situated at the mouth of the river Sperchius, and reputed to produce the genuine hellebore, recommended by the ancient physicians as a cure for insanity, whence the well known adage, "Naviget Anticyram."

[101] Sueton. Calig. 50.

[102] Juvenal. Sat. vi. v. 614.

[103] Hor. Epod Lib. Carm. V. 1703. See also the admirable notes of Dacier and Sanadon upon the above ode.

[104] Disquisitionum Magicarum, Lib. III. Quæstio III. De Amatorio Malaficio, page 7.

[105] Cinq livres de l'imposture et tromperie des diables. Lib. II., p. 216, 1569.

[106] De Margarum Daemonomania. Lib. I., Cap. III., p. 27.

[107] Æneid, Lib. IV., v. 13, 14, 15, and 16.

[108] Pausanias, Græciæ Descriptio, Lib. V., c. 27.

[109] In his work "De valetudine tuendâ."

[110] Traité universel des drogues simples.

[111] The Holy Guide by John Heyden, Gent., [Greek: Philonomos] a servant of God and a Secretary of Nature, Lib. v. p. 61.

[112] Ibid., p. 62.

[113] Anatomy of Melancholy.

[114] Essays, Vol. II., p. 262-3. Translated by Cotton. London, 1743.

[115] "Cujus rei istud est argumentum, quod ubi rem veneream exercemus, tantillo emisse, imbecilles evadimus."--_De Genitura._

[116] Tome 52, p. 286, et seq.

[117] Juvenal, Sat. 6, v. 302. "Ad venerem," says Lubinus in a note on this passage, "miris modis instigant (_i.e._, ostreæ), inde turpissimæ illæ bestiæ (feminæ) ostrea comedebant, _ut ad Venerem promptiores essent_."

[118] De la génération de l'homme, p. 272.

[119] Traité des dispenses et de Carême, Paris, 1709, en 12mo, réimprimé trois fois.

[120] Names given to the female slaves or concubines in the harem of the Sultan.

[121] A large province of the Deccan, said to have been famous, in ancient times, for its diamond mines.

[122] That Coryphæus of voluptuaries, George IV., so highly appreciated this quality in truffles, that his Ministers at the courts of Turin, Naples, Florence, &c., were specially instructed to forward by a state messenger to the Royal Kitchen any of those fungi that might be found superior in size, delicacy or flavour.

[123] Physiologie du Gout, par Brillat Savarin, Paris, 1859.

[124] Martial, Epigram, lib. xiii. epig. 34.

[125] Ducange, Glossaire.

[126] J. H. Meibomius de flagrorum usu in Re medica et Venerea, Paris, 1792, p. 125.

[127] See Macaronéana, par M. Octave Delepierre, Paris, 1852, p. 3.

[128] Thevet, Portraits des Vies des Hommes Illustres, Vol. I., p. 13, fol. edit., Paris, 1584.

[129] Hume's Hist. of England, Vol. I., p. 348.

[130] Dissertatio Inauguralis de Ambra, § iv. p. 36.

[131] Medicamentum quod non solum potenter stimulat, sed vel effœtum senem, pro brevi tempore, ad juventutem iterum restituit. _Ibid._ § viii., p. 44.

[132] Née dans une condition obscure, vouée au libertinage dés sa plus tendre jeunesse, autant par goût que par état, Made. Du Barry ne put offrir à son auguste amant, malgré la fleur de la jeunesse et les brillants appas dont elle étoit encore pourvue, que les restes de la plus vile canaille, de la prostitution." Vie privée des maîtresses de Louis XV., p. 153.--"You are no doubt curious to hear an opinion of Madame Du Barri's beauty from the lips of one who has seen her both in her days of prosperity and after her downfall. She was a person of small, almost diminutive stature, extremely frail and delicate in feature, which saved her from being vulgar; but even from the first, she always wore that peculiarly _fane_ look which she owed to a youth of dissipation, a maturity of unbounded indulgence. At the period of my visit she was about thirty-six years of age, but, from her child-like form and delicacy of countenance, appeared much younger, and her _gambades_ and unrestrained gestures of supreme delight on having, as she said, _quelqu'un à qui parler_, did not seem displaced. Although alone, and evidently not in expectation of visitors, her toilet was brilliant and _recherché_, the result of the necessity of killing time."--"Talleyrand Papers."

[133] Espion de la Cour.

[134] Gazetier Cuirassé, ou Anecdotes Scandaleuses de la Cour de France.

[135] In his "_Praxis Medica Admiranda_," wherein he also gives the formula of an electuary _ad excitandum tentiginem nulli secundum_, p, 295, Observ. XCI., as well as a recipe for pills ad _Coitûs ignaviam_, CXIII., p. 297.

[136] Encyclopœdia Parthensis, Article Cachunde.

[137] See his Premier Traité de l'homme et de son essentielle anatomie, avec les éléments et ce qui est en eux, de ses maladies, médicine et absolus remèdes, etc., Paris, 1588.

[138] Cent. 2.

[139] See Celius, lib. xiv., cap. 3.

[140] Histoire de Ferdinand et Isabelle, Tom. II., 326. Paris, 1766.

[141] Biographie Universelle, Art. Wallenstein.

[142] Detested by the Parisians, Dubois was the object of innumerable caricatures, of which the most _sanglante_ was one representing him "à genoux aux pieds d'une fille de joie qui prenait de ce sale écoulement qui afflige les femmes, tous les mois, pour lui en rougir sa calotte et le faire Cardinal." See Erotika Biblion. Paris, 1792, p. 52.

[143] Mémoires du Cardinal Dubois, vol. I., p. 3.

[144] Ælius Tetrabilis, I., Disc. Chap. 32 and 33.

[145] Browne's Travels in Africa, etc., p. 343.

[146] La génération de l'homme, ou tableau de l'amour conjugal. Tom. 1., p. 276.

[147] Ibid., p. 232.

[148] Venette, Génération de l'homme, Tom. I., p. 279.

[149] De cultu hortorum, v. 108.

[150] Moretum, v. 85.

[151] Mag. Nat., Lib. vii.

[152] Mala Bacchica tanta olim in amoribus prævalerunt, ut coronæ ex illis statuæ Bacchi ponerentur.

[153] Surag radis ad coitum summe facit: _si quis comedat aut infusionem bibat, membrum subite erigitur_. Leo Afric., Lib, IX., cap. ult., p. 302.

[154] Gomez (Ferdinand) of Ciudad Real, a celebrated physician, born 1388, died 1457.

[155] Mag. Nat. Lib. VII., c. 16.

[156] Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales chap. LXI., p. 360, Burgos, 1578.

[157] Travels in Africa, &c., p. 341.

[158] Lignac. A physical view of man and woman in a state of marriage. Vol. I., p. 190.

[159] Turcæ ad Levenzinum contra Comitem Ludovicum Souches pugnantes, opio exaltati turpiter cæsi, et octo mille numero occisi, _mentulas rigidas_ tulere. Christen. Opium Hist.

[160] It was, perhaps, the knowledge of this fact that suggested to La Fontaine the lines:--

"Un muletier à ce jeu Vaut trois rois."

"To play at which game, I'm sure it is clear, Three kings are no match for one muleteer."

[161] Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain. Tom. II., p. 123.

[162] Cabanis, Rapport, &c., Tom. II., p. 89.

[163] Essais philosophiques sur les mœurs de divers animaux étrangers.

[164] "The care on thee depending Hath fed upon the body of my father, Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold; Other less fine in carat is more precious, Preserving life in _medicine potable_."

_Henry IV._, sec. part, act iv. sc. v.

[165] Lettres sur François Rabelais. Let. II.

[166] De Pœnitentiâ Decretorum, lib. xix.

[167] See Millengen's "Curiosities of Medical Experience," art. Flagellation Vol. II., p. 47 et seq.

[168] Medic., Lib. III., art. 12.

[169] See Richter, Opuscula medica Col. I., p. 273, "Qui novit ex stimulantium fonte, cardiaca, _aphrodisiaca_, diaphoretica, diuretica aliaque non infirmi ordinis medicamenta peti, perspicit plenius quam larga _verberibus_ bene merendi sit, uti præsertim in torpore nervorum, paralysi, _impotentia ad Venerem_ et naturalium excretionum eluxit."

[170] Author of the work entitled, "_De flagrorum usu in re venerea_," Lug. Bat., 1639, with the motto:

"Delicias pariunt Veneri crudelia flagra, Dum nocet, illa juvat, dum juvat, ecce nocet.

"Lo! cruel stripes the sweets of love ensure, And painful pleasures pleasing pains procure."

[171] Millingen, "Curiosities of Medical Experience." Vol. II., p. 52.

[172] To this personage may justly be applied the French epitaph upon one who died under similar circumstances:

"Je suis mort de l'amour enterpris Entre les jambes d'une dame, Bien heureux d'avoir rendu l'âme, Au même lieu où je l'ai pris."

[173] See his work, _contra Astrologos_, Lib. III., cap. 27.

[174] Petri Abœlardi Abbatis Rugensis et Heloissæ Abbatissæ Paracletensis Epistolæ. Epist. I., p. 10.

[175] Ibid., Epist. III., p. 81.

[176] See Meibomius, p. 43, note a. Edit. Paris, 1792, 12mo.

[177] Name given to persons having only one testicle.

[178] Œuvres, Tom. I, p. 283. Ed. 1714.

[179] Travels in Siberia in 1661, Tom. I., p. 319.

[180] Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales. Art. Pollution.

[181] Confessions, Tom. I.

[182] De Nasturcio mira refert Dioscoridas I., 2, c. 185.

[183] Satyricon, Caput xxxviii.

[184] Pract. part. ii. cap. de passioni membré-génital.

[185] Ducatiana ii., b. 505.

[186] Curiosities of Medical Experience, vol. II., p. 55.

[187] Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 3, memb. 3, subj. 5.

[188] Pornodidascalus seu Colloquium Muliebre Petri Aretini _ingeniossimi et ferè incomparabilis virtutum et vitiorum demonstratoris_: De Astu nefario, horrendisque dolis, quibus impudicæ mulieres juventuti incautæ insidiantur.--Francofurti. Anno 1623.

[189] Verum omni istâ sciencâ (magica) (says Lucretia) nunquam potui movere cor hominis solâ vero salivâ mea (id est ampleux et basiis) inungens tam furiosè furere tam bestialiter obstupefieri plurimos coegi ut instar idoil me Amoresque meos adorarint.--p. 47-8.

[190] Othello, Act iii. Sc. 10.

[191] Sir Thos. Browne's Works, Vol. III., p. 89. Bohn's Edit.

[192] Origen, one of the Fathers of the Church, born in A. D. 185, is a melancholy proof how far the reason may be perverted by erroneous views in religious matters; for according to Fulgos, "ut corpus ab omni venerea labe mundum servaret, omnique suspicione careret, sectis genitalibus membris, eunuchum se fecit." He, however, lived long enough to condemn his error. See his 15th sermon upon St. Matthew, cap. 19, v. 12; his work against Celsus, lib. 7; and his 7th Treatise upon the 18th and 19th Chapters of St. Matthew.

[193] Baldassar Timœus Cas. med. Lib. XIX., Salacitas nitro curata.

[194] Historie Mundi, Lib. XXVI., c. 7.

[195] The medical school of Salerno (_latine_ Salernum) was founded by Robert Guiscard at the end of the 11th century; and about the year 1100 a collection of medical aphorisms, was composed in Latin verse by a certain John of Milan, and published under the title of _Medicina Salertina_. Of this poem, which originally consisted of 1239 verses, only 373, or about a third, are extant. These were published at Paris in 1625 by Réné Moreau; in 1653 it was travestied by L. Martin; paraphrased by Bruzen de la Martinière in 1743, and by Dr. Levacher de la Feuverie in 1782.

[196] De tuto cantharidum in medicinâ usu interno.

[197] Arnaud de Villeneuve was one of the luminaries of the 13th century, being distinguished for his profound knowledge of medicine, chemistry, astrology, and theology. He discovered the sulphuric, muriatic and nitric acids, and was the first to compose alcohol and the essence of terebinth or turpentine.

[198] Traité des dispenses du carême.

[199] "Any man," said Abernethy, the celebrated and eccentric surgeon, "that drinks coffee and soda water, and smokes cigars, may lie with my wife."

[200] De Aer: Aquā et Locis. Liber, caput x.

[201] Comment. in Boerh. Aphor. sec. 1063, Vol. III.

[202] _De Machinis_, C. IV.

[203] No. 206.

[204] _Exercitatio de aciá_, Cap. 4, _et seq._

[205] Odyssey VIII. line 477.

[206] Introd. to Hesiod, cap. VI. p. 14. Edit. Plautin, 1603, in voce [Greek: aoidos].

[207] Annals of Gallantry.

[208] Celsus has described the operation, in detail. Medicina, lib. VII. c. 25.

[209] Juvenal, Sat. VI. v. 379-80.

[210] Ibid., v. 73-74.

[211] Martialis, lib. XIV. Ep. 215.

[212] Martialis, lib. VII. Ep. 81.

[213] Holiday's Juvenal, Sat. VI., illustr. 11, note "_Unbutton a Comedian_." For a copy see plate VII., fig. 1. and 2.

[214] Monumenti Antichi inediti. Rome, 1767, fol., p. IV. c. 8, p. 247, fig. 188.

[215] Martial, Lib. IX. Epig. 28, v. 12.

[216] Travels in Africa and Egypt.

[217] "There (in the arsenal) are also various whimsical bolts and locks with which he (Carrera) used to keep his concubines confined." Travels in Italy. See _The World_, vol. 18, p. 154.

[218] Brantome, Dames Galantes, tom. iii., p. 138.

[219] Le Cadenas. This poem was composed by the author when he was only eighteen years of age, and it was occasioned by a lady who was in the circumstances here spoken of.

[220] Dr Smollett's translation, Vol. XXXII.

[221] Sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus.

[222] "_Castrum quasi Castum, Castra_," says Isidorus in his _Etymologies_, Lib. IX., "sunt ubi miles steterit: dicta autem, castra, quasi casta, eo quod ibi castraretur libido." _A castle_ from _castrating of lust_.

[223] Quæritur Ægystus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est: desidiosus.--De Remed. Amoris.

[224] "Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis artes."

[225] See Pausanias's "Corinthians."

[226] Vide Cicero, lib. V., Tusc. Questions and Plutarch's Treatise of Curiosity. It must, however, be observed, that this story is wholly incredible, inasmuch as the same writers affirm that Democritus employed his leisure in writing books and in dissecting the bodies of animals, neither of which could very well be effected without the eyes.

[227] In Lucian, in the Dialogue entitled--"Venus and Cupid."

[228] The story itself is the same as that related by Poggio (Bracciolini) of a hermit of Pisa. "Eremita," says he, "qui Pisis morabatur, tempore Petri Gambacurtæ, meretricem noctu in suam ce lulan deduxit, vigesiesque ea nocte mulierem cognovit; semper cum moveret clunes, ut crimen fugeret luxuriæ vulgaribus verbis dicens: 'domati, carne cattizella;' hoc est, doma te, miserrima caro!"

THE END.