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Show +s6 }/ISSERT. IX. '--v---' H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C o. " ·bred in Europe, nor.apes propagate, nor parrots build theit· nefl:s nor, " many Indian or .American plants grow iu Europe, although they are " fown there ; in like manner~ the French evil could never be pro ·" duced in Europe by thefe caufcs, from whence, as we have already. '.' faid it was, produced in Hifpaniola ; becaufe every clime has its par~ '' .ticular properties, .and .thofe things which arife in one . clime fpon..., 4 ' taneoufly can by no art be produced in another; for as the poet fays, ·" nan omni.s fort omnic1 tel/us" .. We !hall grant many things to Dr. Aftruc which would not be granted to him .by any other perfon. We grant that there has never been in Europe that abufc o~ftminiarum menjlruatarum, nor that acri .. ·mony nor vi~.:ulence in the fluids of the human boqy, nor. that h~at in the uterus which he fuppofes i~1 the ifland .of Hifpaniol~; ,,a.lthough. the contrary appears from .the books pf medicine publifhed in thefe I laft two hundred years. We grant to him that they have ~o e amples thet•e of luxurious e~cefles , ; becaufe to him it appears too much to confefs them to ijaye been in Europe (q); and we grant to him alfo, that all the w.omen of Europe have been moft healthy and chafte. All that we grant to him, though it is contradicted by hifrory, and tpe common opj11ion,_of Europeans themfelves. NotwithD:anding, we affirm, that the French ~vi] could be gen~rated.in Europe withou~ contagion; becaufe all thoie diforders which,4ftruc fuppofes to belong to the ifland of Hifpaniola, could alfo take place in Europe, although they . nev~r had been known there. Thofe chafte women induced by violel)t paffions, ·which are comm011 to aU the children of Adam, might become as in~cmtinent and abandoned as that author fuppofes tlie Americans of Hifpaniola were. • Tho fe fouJ?d and hcp.lthy men mjgh.t find an alin'lerH as pernicious as that which was the food of tbe natives of llaiti. The human fperm, which of itfclf is very acrid, as Aftruc fay s, might, by rea:fon .of unwholefomefood, become mor.e and more fo., until i:t had that degree Gf acrimony, which produces .the venereal aiLment. The nm~J.es ,might become .virulent, ,either from fuppre!lion., or plethora, or many other cau[es it:} .the fluids or the vefiels. It ap.- ,(q) Sc? efio: dcmus in Europa vcnc;rem a:q\tC impllram, :rtquc in Hifpaniola excrce ri; ,ne<ruc cn1n~ con,o'a pugnarc placet, !Jttan~u;~m ea tnmr,n rlimia vid ':lnt 11 r. .lljll'lu De Mo.r'uis :V..cncrcls, liL. , ,~ oap. 1 2. ; • l pears ... I S T 0 R Y 0 1' M E X I C 0. pears ;from the letters of Chr~fl:opher Columbus, quoted by his learn ..' cd fon D~ ferdinand, ·that h~ l~ded the firft time in Hifpani~la, on ·the 24th of D~embet, r 1.49~, becaufe a veifel of his miferable fleeChad· I ftruck upon a fand bank; that all the time he remained there from the 24th4of December to the 4th of January, they were employed in getting .the wood and timbers of the vefiei up from the' fand, to erect a .little fort'refs, ih which he left forty men, and embarked that fame day with the reft of his people ,for Spain, . to bear the news of the difcovery of that new world. All the circum.ll:ances b(their arrival in that ifland do not .allow us to fufpect, that the Spaniards · had opportunity to have fuch commerce with any of the American woni.en as to depart infected by them. Their mutual admiration of each other, the fight · of fo many new objects, and the very !hort ftay of on]y eleven days, which were employed in the great fatigue of getting up the wreck, and erecting that fort i.n fo much hafte, after the inconveniencies of the ]onge.fl: and the mo.fl: dangerous voyage which had ever been performed, make a conjecture of this kind entire]y improbable. It is not lefs improbable, from the filence of Columbus himfelf, his fon D. Ferdinand, and of Peter M~utyr d' Angheira, who in defcribing the fufferings of that voyage, fay nothing of fuch a diftemper. · But although we !hould grant, that thofe Spaniards who returned from the firft voyage were infetted by the French evil, we !hould ftill fay, that the contagion of Europe did not proceed from them, according to the teftimony of fome refpettable authors then living. Oafpare Torrella, a learned phyfician above mentioned, fays, in his work, entitled, Aphrodyjiacum (r), that the French evil began in Alverne, :1 province of France, very diftant from Spain, in I 49 3. B. Fulgofio· or .Fregofo, doge of Genoa, in 1478., in his c1,1rious work., entitled, Di8a Faflaque Memorabi'lia, and printed in :z sol),, affirms ( s ), that the French evil began to be known two years bef01~e Char.les VIII. car.ne into Italy. (r) lnccpit h:ec maligna a:gritudo in AI vernia ·a,mo M.CCCCXCI·If. & fie per cont~gionem pervenit, &c. (s) Biennio antequam in Italiam Carolus (VIII.) .-cnfrct, nov_.1 a:gritudo inter mortales dc4 teaa f~it, cui nee nomen, nee remcdia Medici ex veterum Aultorum difcipliua invenic:bam,, varie, ut rcgiones erant, appcllata. In Gallia Nc:apolitanum dixerunt morbum, "t in Italia Gallicum appcllabant. Lib. i. c~p. 4• feet. ultimo. · VoL. Il. N .h .~l He .. 4Si DISSJ!RT. IX. ' "•-- , • |