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414 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
continue and increase the disease. In tender parts
and small surfaces, as in gonorrhoea and ophthalmia,
I prefer not to increase the action of the part by
cold.
Women should take many sitz-baths, and use the
vagina syringe with tepid water very often. The diet
must be very sparing, and contain not an atom of
grease. So simple
is the cure of this disorder.
Syphilis is a virus of a far more malignant kind.
God knows how it was first developed; but I am en
tirely satisfied that it has only been known to the civil
ized world for three centuries. It was not produced
by any ordinary debauchery. In the worst days of
Babylon or Rome, it was entirely unknown. We find
no hint of it in ancient authors, medical, historical, or
satirical. It was never known in Europe until the
period of the return of Columbus from the discovery
of America. In five years from that time it had
spread over Europe, and committed everywhere terri
ble ravages.
Some have a theory that it had its origin in Italy, at
this period, from a soldier having had intercourse with
a glandered mare. It prevailed in an army then in
Italy, certainly ; but others say it was brought from
Spain, by some officers who had been with Columbus,
or had got it at Madrid.
My own belief is, that it was developed among the
Carib Indians, by the use of the most revolting form
of carnivorous diet, the eating of human flesh. What
ever its origin, it soon infected the blood of Spain, spread
over Europe, and was carried by commerce to every
region
of the earth—
many
of the fairest of which it