CHAP. XXVI. Of Venereal Affects.
THIS Scourge of transgressing Huma∣nity, being as it were a Murrain, or common Destruction to venereous Persons, may be called in Latin Lues venerea, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 solvo, vel quod Corpus omnino dissolvit, vel quasi luens usque ad nihil. Lues enim ista, pestis est species, vel qualiscunque contagio, quoe homines inficit, debito supplicio scelus luere.
The first Knowledge of this pocky intes∣tine Enemy (at least in the European parts of the World) was at the Siege of Naples, by the French; being brought thither (as some Authours affirm) by the Spaniards, that came with Christopher Columbus from the West Indies, and they like plaguy Persons that croud to infect others (contrary to their reserved temper) being inflam'd with a ve∣nereal Itching, and being also free of their flesh, they communicated (as a great rarity) this new found foul Distemper, to the Italian Women, which among others they had en∣grost