A continuation of the account of the nature causes, symptoms and cure of the distempers that are incident to seafaring people illustrated with some remarkable instances of the sicknesses of the fleet during the last summer, historically related : to which is prefix'd an essay concerning the quantity of blood that is to be evacuated in fevers : being the third part of the work / by William Cockburn ...

Observation XXIX.

T—B—was taken with an Ef∣flux of yellow Matter out of his Yard, in one days time, after some impure Embraces, he had a scalding of his Urin, a painful erection, and une chorde.

He complain'd to me as soon al∣most as it appear'd, and he was per∣fectly cur'd of this misfortune, the Gleet and all its attendants in twelve days, by the method I hinted in my last Book. The Gonorrhaea in this way of Cure, has this constant ap∣pearance thro' the whole course, as I have hitherto observed; for the first three or four days, it runs but moderately of a thicker kind of stuff, from the Fourth or Fifth, to the Ninth thinner and in a greater abun∣dance, very yellow and sometimes green; about the Ninth it general∣ly changes its colour to an equal sub∣stance,

and the desired whiteness, de∣creasing considerably in its quantity, till on the Twelfth, Thirteenth or Fourteenth, it quite vanishes, daily lessening by degrees, its substance becoming thicker and whiter, the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 it grows; after the same very way which we observe in other Ul∣cers.

I could relate more Instances of this kind, if it were not too tedious to read Cures, without knowing the Method, and Instruments that con∣tributed towards them; and there∣fore I will add no more Observations of this Nature, but rather divert our selves a little with some Reason∣ings about its Antiquity, which, in my Opinion, is pretty plainly to be read in a great many places in Anci∣ent History, but more especially a∣mong the Comodians. Tho' this has seem'd to be very obscure, and we are contented to refer its Original to the Siege of Naples; yet to lay aside prophane History, at this time, I will only alledge that an Account of may easily be found in the Holy Scriptures themselves, and by the way of expressing it there; this

seems to be as Ancient as the time of Women having Monthly and Child-bed purgations, which succeed the description of our Diseases here, from the very beginning of Mankind. The place where I think this is so plainly intimated, is when Moses Institutes the Ceremonies of the Jews purifying themselves, he says in the 2d verse of the 15th Chapter of Le∣viticus, When any Man has a Running Issue out of his Flesh, &c. It is de∣scrib'd very plainly and beyond a guess: And the Word Flesh here spoken of, is frequently taken in ho∣ly writ for the Privy Member of a Man, as in the Institution of the Cir∣cumcision with Abraham, in the 17th Chapter of Cenesis at the 11th verse, and when God Almighty denounces his Wrath against the Whoredom of Jerusalem, in the 26th verse of the 17th Chapter of Eze••••••l's Prophesies, he says, Thou ••••st also 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••or∣nication with the Aegyptians thy ••••••••∣bours, great of Flesh, as he had 〈◊〉〈◊〉, cum, Mutoneatis Aegyptis; and in the 20th verse of the 23d Chapter of that Prophet's Book, For she doted upon their paramours, whose Flesh is as the

Flesh of Asses, &c. Now seeing the word Flesh here spoke of is Penis, we can be at no dispute about the Acci∣dent related of it in the sequel of this Chapter, in Leviticus: And it being the Running of the Reins or Clap, that Moses Institutes this Ce∣remony of Purification for, 'tis evi∣dent also, that this Sickness thus to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Purified for, was known to Mo∣ses, and frequent among those that recei••••d those Laws, or that it was 〈◊〉〈◊〉 among the Children of Israel; and so, among the most Ancient things that we know, and more An∣cient than the most of, or any other Diseases: But this is still more clear that we read it in the French Translation, or in that of the vulgar Latin. And therefore 'tis plain, from this single Instance, that this Disease is more Ancient than the first of the times we use to assign, as I intneded to prove.