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Show ..f. SO .l:>l96!RT. lX. ~ H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. Leonardo Fioravanti, a learned Bolognefe_ phyfician, fays in his work! entitled, Capricci Medtcinali, that he was mformed by the fon of one who had been futler to the army of Alfonfo, king of Naples• about the year 14 56, that the army of the king, as well as the French, becoming {hort of prvvifions from the length of the war, the futler Cupplied them both with dreffed human fielh, and that from thence fprung she French evil. The celebrated chancellor Bacon, lord V erulam, adds (d), that the flelh fupplied them, was of men killed in Barbary, which they prepared like the. tunny fi{h. As no body knew, nor could know, who was the firfi in Europe that fuffered that gre~t evil, neither 'ca:n we know the caufe of it : but let us attend to what may have happened. ' S E C T. II. 'The French Efi?i! could be communicated to Europe from otber .Countries if the old Continent .. TO prove that the French evil could be communicated by mean'S· of contagion to Europe, from other countries of the fame c:ontinent,. it is necefTary,. but wiU he alfo fu.flkient to £hew that that e~il· was fi.rft felt in [orne of thofe countries, and that they had commerce with Europe before the new world was difcovered. Both of thefe points {hall be fully demonfi:rated. Vatablo, Pineda, Calmet, and other authors, have maintained, that among the difi:empers with which Job was affiieted, the French ~vii was one. This opinion is fo ancient, that as foon as that evil appear .. ed in Italy, fome called it the evil of Job, as Battifi:a Fulgofio, an author then living, attefi:s (e). Caline£ attempts (f) to prove his opinion with a great deal of erudition; but as we know nothing of the complaints of Job, except what is mentioned in the facred books, which may eafily be conceived to fpeak of other difiempers then known, or of fon,1e one entirely u~known to us, we can .therefore build little 011 this opinion. (•1) Sylva Sylvnrum centur. r. art.:~. (t) In a work entitled, DiCta Fatlaque Memorabilia, lib. i, c. -t• (/) Di!T'crt. in Morbum Jobi, t Andre H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. Andre Thevet, a French geographer (g); and other authors affirm, that the French evil was endemic in the internal provinces of Africa, fituate on both fides of the river Senegal. And Cleyer, firft phyfician of the Dutch colony, in the ifland of Java, fays (h), that the venereal difeafe was proper and natural to that ifle, and as common as the quotidian fever. Thuanu~ has affirmed the fame thing (i). J. Bonzius, phyfician to the 'Dutch in the Eall:-Indies, tell:ifies, that (k) that diftemper was endemic in Amboyna and the Moluccas, and that 'it was not necefTary to have any previous carnal commerce to catch the infetl:ion. This was confirmed in part by the account of the companions of Magellan, the firft who made the tollr of the world in th.e famous vefTel, Viflory, who attdl:ed, as Herrera fays (I), that they found in Timor, an ifiand of the Moluccan Archipelago, a great num~ her of the ifiand,ers infeCted with the French evil; which was certainly neither carried there by the Americans nor Europeans, previouily difeafed. Forneau, a French J efuit, learned, accurate, and experienced in the affairs of China, having been aiked by Mr. Afiruc (m), if the phyficians of China thought the vener.eal dill:emper originated in their country, or brought there from other p1aces; anfwered, that the Chinefe phyficians whom he had confulted were of opinion, that that diftemper was fuffer.ed there fince the earliefi antiquity; and that the , Chinefe books written in Chinefe charaCters, which were efieemed by them to be ancient, faid nothing of the origin of that difcafe, but make mention of it as a difi:emper yery ancient even at that time, in which thefe books were written; that alfo it was neither known, nor probable, that the dill:emper was carried there from other countries. Lafily, Dr. Afiruc fays, according to his opinion (n), after having examined and weighed the tell:imonies of authors, that the venereal (f) Cofmographie Univerfelle, liv, i. cap. r r. (h) Epi!l:. ad Chrifi. McntJ:alium, ( i) Hi ft. Sui Temporis, cnl!· 7'· ·(k) In Mcthodo mcdcndi quo in lndiis Orientalibus oportct ud in cura morborum illic vulgo ac popnlaritcr graffantium. (I) Dec. III. lib. iv. cap. r. (m) Differt. de Origine Morborum Vencrcorum 1nt\ll' Sinias. Ad Cak ·tom. i. ~) De Morbis Venerei ~, lib, i. cap. 1 r. M,m m z difeafe 45.'~ DlSSERl' • IX. ~ |