Henry Thomas Buckle

“ Alas! we find neither learning nor learned ornaments are proof again/I humanity; and there is no more sanstifying quality in a coat of one colour than another. The Devil of the flesh works in black as well as red. ”

“ Perhaps, too, it may sometimes happen to those who have a hot state os blood, and are consequently more prone to lust, that the reins may grow warm by the continual accesiion oi the blood, as is noted by physicians. When by an error in diet the blood is inslamed, the reins generally susser sor it, because a greater quantity os blood is continually slowing there than to any other part : so then, lust does not depend so much upon the heat os the reins as srom the common cause, the heat os the blood, and srom thence pro- ceeds lust, and the heat os the reins. ”

“ By the strokes os rods, the blood, as well in the great as small vessels in the loins,, grows warm, and then in the reins themselves ; and lastly, srom thence the whole mass os blood and theresore it slows more hot and in a greater quantity through the seminal arteries, till by the wicked thoughts os these wretches, preparing themselves sor a, venereal congress, it is turned with a greater degree towards the spermatick vessels, aster the same manner a prosluvium os the seed is accelerated by a sost bed, or a supine posture. Tis well known that people who ride on horse-back are prone to venery ”

“ Again, smce the emulgent vein is the greatest os all the veins that proceed srom the vena cava, and carries more blood into the veins than is requisite sor their nutriment, the artery, too, is larger than only to serve to depurate the serous humour, and theresore he thinks it probable that nature, which makes nothing in vain, would not have sormed those vessels so very large unless with a view to some particular end ”

“ That those who sacrisice to Venus purge their reins, which is the reason that Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, ^tius, Avicenna, and abundance os other physicians aslert, that an intemperate use os venery is prejudicial to the reins. Hence it is that the reins were dedicated to Venus by the ancients : sor Fulgentius, in his mythology, in the sable os Peleus and Thetis, cites Democritus's physiology to prove that the Heathens thought that every part os the human body was under the insluence os a peculiar deity ”

“ But distempers os the head are more increased by blows, that part being hurt by the lead external sorce : and yet this medicine os Titus, although somewhat harsh, has its use ; sor he is not asraid os raismg the heat, because madness is without a sever or a small pulse, which dis- tinguishes it srom a srenzy. So it is the sear os pain which keeps the patient within the bounds os reason. Thus I knew a very honest man, who was osten mad, sorced by the threatenings and blows os a stronger person to lye as quiet as a lamb. ”

“ What consirms this opinion os Sennertius, is, that according to the disserent sormation os the reins and renal vessels (in which nature in other cases osten sports) , some men are more prone to lust than others, and sar more notable per- sormers. We have instances os this in Albertus's ob- se nations, and in Riolanus's anatomy. Each os these dissered the body os a malesactor, and say they sound Three Emulgents descending into the right rein, and the spermatick veins on each side proceeding srom the emulgent. ”

“ There is now alive," says he, "a man os a prodigious and almost unheard " os kind os lechery sor he is never inslamed to plea- " sure but when he is whipt ; and yot he is so intent " on the act, and longs sor the strokes with such an " earnestness, that he blames the flogger that uses him " gently, and is never throughly matter os his wishes " unless the blood starts, and the whip rages smartly " o'er the wicked limbs os the monster. ”

“ But, although you was not wanting to your sather's same in sending back the book, enlarged with many additions, together with an elegant epistle, yet Paullinus, my bookseller, with a view os making an honed gain, has entreated me to add some sew observations, which he sancies I have always ready by me on all occasions. ”

“ As sor what he relates in the beginning os the epistle, os the cure os distempers by flogging, that depends upon the authority os others, and is beyond all exceptions. The moderns, however, seem to account these remedies, is not worse than the disease, yet very ungratesul ones. Yet, as to the cure os madness by strokes, which he quotes srom Ccelius Aurelius, Rhases, and others, although physicians have not taken notice os it lately, yet I learn srom Bodin that it was practised but in this last age in England. ”

“ Is you have recourse to the astrolo- gers, they will impute the whole os the busmess to the stars, and accuse heaven that sometimes provokes such an appetite in man by a peculiar and hidden insluence. They will say, as Picus expresses it, That the man's propensity to Venus was caused in his geniture, and destined to flogging by opposite and threatening rays os the stars on which subject Franciscus Junc*linus takes a great deal os pains to instruct us in the cal- culation os nativities, chap. ”

“ This creature " begs the savour os the woman whom he is to enjoy, " brings her a rod himself, soaked and hardened in " vinegar a day besore sor the same purpose, and en- " treates the blessing os a whipping srom the harlot on " his knees ; and the more smartly he is whipt, he rages. " the more eagerly, and goes the same pace both to " pleasure and pain a smgular instance os one who " sinds a delight in the midst os torment ; and as he is " not a man very vicious in other respects, he acknow- " ledges his distemper, and abhors it." ”

“ On the right os the vena cava y just under the emulgent, arises the right Jeminal vein ; and in the same place, srom the arteria magna, arises satseminal artery, both descending into the right testicle. On the lest, the Jeminal artery arising srom the trunk os the arteria magna, and the Jeminal vein srom the lest vein os the emulgent, are both inserted into the lest testicle. Besides these, there are nerves coming srom the part os st&spinal marrow, contained in the vertebra, that reach to the reins, and not only pierce their coats, but penetrate their very substance. ”

“ Besides, it is not many years smce that a person os a small posb in a noted town in Holland, very much addicted to venery, was catched in the very act with a woman, whom he could never effectually enjoy without being stimulated by flogging. ”

“ In the next place, it is worth our while to enquire surther into the reasons upon which this opinion is sounded ; sor by this means we shall, at the same
time,.
[ 59 ]
time, discover the cause why strokes and stripes, inslicted on the loins, are incentives to lust. Cagnatus, sor his part, and Montuus, who inclines to his opinion, attribute the whole busmess to the loins, as consisling os those parts we were just now reciting that is, the vertebras, muscles, reins, veins, arteries, and nerves. ”

“ And Aristotle may be quoted to tnis purpole, who thought that other animals were not assected with a gonorrhoea as well as men, because they did not lye upon their backs Prob. X. On the contrary, high- mettled horses, when their loins and reins are heated by the motion os their riders, run with a surious heat to venery. The Athenian matrons seem to have known this, who, when in their samous seasts, they lay srom their husbands and, as Ovid says in his Meta- morphosis, book XL, Fab. ”

“ Perhaps we may draw a reason srom what has been said os this bitter sweet love, sor these beatings are not used by way os correction or amend- ment : sor bad women (is there are any such) arc neither to be restrained by threatenings or paslion, no, nor is they were to beat out their teeth with a slint, as Simonides expresses it in his sragment preserved by Stobaeus ; but a good husband is so sar srom torment- ing the dear bosom os his wise with strokes, that he had rather do as the man in Seneca did, asslict him- self, and make his wise susser by proxy. ”

“ Strokes and stripes os rods most essetually cure those who dislemble diseases. It has osten happened that persons who have shammed an epilepsy have grown well, 'and been cured besore they have been sick by this sharp and wholesome remedy. It has done good, too, as preventive physic, by hindering others srom imposing dislempers upon the world. I have known lazy servants, who have dissembled some strange dislemper, return to their busmess by this discipline. We can the less doubt that strokes contribute to the cure os real bodily dislempers, smce they cure those os the soul. ”

“ Madness sometimes is heightened into srenzy, which kind os srenzy grows milder by strokes and whipping ; sor a company os madmen in London, consined in the same house, are severely chastised with rods at the lad quarter os the moon, at which time their srenzy is more powersul srom the inslammation os their brain. ”

“ From whence Rhases, in his twelsth book, says As osten as the loins are chased with warm medicime', the penis will swell, and be extended in erection. And Masib the Arabian, in the same author, says That the heat os the back aslists luxury (that it excites lust) , and as
This depends upon the old exploded maxim os the philoso- phers and naturalisls, Similis stmili gaudet. ”

“ He who will deter people from vice, must make it odious by explaining its consequences which is effectually done in this treatise. The chastest ear in the world is not polluted by a relation of the prodigies in lewdnefs ; nor ought any man be offended at a natural-ifl who searches into the catifes of the distemper, and shews how they may proceed from the springs of nature ”

“ You know that saying os your Celsus Light wits, because they have nothing, detract nothing srom themselves ; a single conseslion os error agrees with a great wit, who yet will retain, sor all that mistake, many valuable things : and why should not an error deserve pardon, which the person does not incur by his own obstinacy, but by the inselicity os the age he lives in ? ”

“ This cure by whipping, altho' it may seem rough, yet ought not a physician to abstain srom it, is it has -a good effect. St. Austin, in his 5Oth epislle, speaks elegantly to this purpose, "A physician is uneasy to a patient in a srenzy, and so is a sather to an unruly son the one by tying him down, and the other by whip- ping, but both by loving them ; but is they should neglect them, and susser them to perish, that salse clemency is rather a cruelty." Socrates, in his Gorgias os Plato, says " That a physician should not indulge his patient in their appetites, or use many and high ”

“ From all which, it is no wonde*- that such shameless wretches, victims os a detested appetite, such as we have mentioned, or others exhausted by too sre- quent a repetition, their loins and their veslels being drained, have sought sor a remedy by flogging. ”

“ We have stiewn how this custom might be warranted srom a natural reason, tho' the Luperci might have a trick at the bottom, who struck the women with other kind os weapons than the Ferula, as Cardan imagines. Among some nations, such as the Persians and Russians, the married women take it as a token oi love srom their husbands to be soundly beaten. Bar- clay says os the Russian wives, That they estimate the kindness os their husbands srom the strokes they give them, and are never more happy, in their opinion, than when they have met with a man os a barbarous temper. ”

“ In answer to this, me said, Where are your blows and beatings, the prooss os your love ? Sure it is, that in this country they are the only in- siances os the care and assection os husbands. When Jordanes heard this, his amazement at sirst hindered his laughter, but soon aster, when both were over, he thought it sor his interest to use her as she had pre- scribed, and not long aster took an occasion to beat her ; and me growing into good humour, by the in- sluence os the cudgel, srom that time sirsb began to*
love
love and esteem her husband in carncst. ”

“ Now the curiosity os the in- genious is turned another way, and new employments succeed the old, smce the learned physicians have be- gun to search with more eagerness into the hidden secrets os the human system, and not to rest contented with discoveries which were hitherto rather believed than demonstrated. ”

“ Earth olomaeus Montagnana, in his examination os the passage os Avicenna, says We mull diligently observe why Avicenna declares, That the imbecility os the reins may be said to be the cause os the desect os coition; and aster he has assirmed that the seminal matter has acquired an adequate persection srom the disposition and tempera- ment os the testicles, he subjoins That 'tis necessary that the same matter ihould be predisposed in the superior member, where the digestive saculty is more powersul, as in the liver and reins, in the one more remotely, in the other more nearly ”

“ Is the bone os the lower jaw is either by immoderate laughter or yawning dislocated, it is reduced by a hearty slap on the sace, which very osten causes mirth in company. Among the Insubres, as I have proved in my Cento os Histories, the dead soetus is extracted srom the mother by compresling the belly strongly, or striking it with wooden or steel balls. I have ob- served that boys, and men too, have been cured os pissing in bed by whipping. ”

“ Is I am not mistaken, there is another person much like Picus's acquaintance mentioned by Ccelius Rho- diginus in his Ancient Readings, book the nth, chap. 15. From him Andreas Tiraquellus cites in his Laws os Wedlock, the i$th, and number the 5th. Ccelius relates the story in this manner : " It is certain, upon " the oath os credible persons, that not many years
' since, there lived a man, not os a salaciousness re- " sembling that os cocks, but os a more wondersul and " almost incredible sort os lechery who, the more "" stripes he received, was the more hurried to coition. " ”