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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means

The ancient Scythians had a practice for curing every appetite of burning lust and making both men and women infertile: bleeding themselves below the ears, as Sabellicus reports in his Enneads. Salmuth, title 10, On Watches, in his commentary on Panciroli’s New Inventions, and Mercurialis, Various Readings, book 3, chapter 7, drawing on Hippocrates and Benzoni, say that it is still practised among the Indians. Langius gives an explanation in book 1, letter 10.

Medicines that lull sexual desire also serve this purpose. “Camphor tied to the genitals and worn in the breeches,” someone says, “makes the penis flaccid. A young noblewoman suffered from this disorder. Among other things, her physician prescribed that she wear on her back for twenty days a sheet of lead pierced with many holes. To dry up her seed, he ordered her to eat as sparingly as possible and frequently chew prepared coriander, lettuce seed and sorrel seed; in this way he freed her from the disease.”

Furthermore, willow leaves, crushed and drunk, obstruct and diminish intercourse, and if used more frequently abolish it altogether. Topaz worn in a ring does the same. Alexander Benedictus writes that a wolf’s right testicle, ground up and administered in oil or rosewater, produces an aversion to sex. Buttermilk taken as food, hemp seed and administered camphor have the same effect.

Vervain carried on the body extinguishes desire, as does the powder of a beheaded and dried frog. To suppress intercourse, let the genitals, loins and pubic region be anointed with water in which Theban opium has been dissolved. Camphor is especially opposed to lust; dry coriander weakens intercourse and prevents an erection of the penis. Mustard drunk has the same effect.

“Give vervain in a drink, and the penis will not become erect for six days. Use dried mint with vinegar; anointing the genitals with henbane or hemlock juice calms the desire for intercourse,” and so forth.

Take lettuce seed, purslane seed and coriander seed, one drachm of each; dried mint, half a drachm; the whitest sugar, three ounces. Powder everything finely, then mix it together with water-lily water; make a solid confection in small pieces. Let the patient take one of these in the morning on rising.

You may find almost countless similar prescriptions in Hildesheim at the place already cited, in Mizaldus, Porta and the others.

10547.Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, Places 22, connects Scythian impotence with an operation involving veins behind the ears, within ancient reproductive theory. Burton’s further claim about both sexes and practices among Indians comes through other authorities. De Herol. is retained in the original; it apparently abbreviates a title concerning clocks or watches, rendered provisionally here. Those intermediate sources remain uncollated.

10548.The source switches to an extended Latin catalogue of remedies. “Seed” in the woman’s case preserves sperma and the historical belief in female generative seed. The lead sheet is worn on the back, not taken internally. Neither the unnamed physician nor the case has yet been identified.

10549.The catalogue mixes plant preparations with stones and animal parts credited with occult or medicinal powers. Topatius is rendered topaz, without asserting equivalence to a precisely defined modern mineral. Lac butyri is rendered buttermilk. Alexander Benedictus is the Latin name used here for Alessandro Benedetti; the passage remains uncollated.

10550.Renes can mean kidneys or loins; pecten here is the pubic region. These terms describe the sites of the external application. Theban opium is an old medicinal name, not a modern standardized formulation. The catalogue is a historical prescription record; its efficacy is not established by Burton’s assertions.

10551.Hyoscyamus is henbane and cicuta hemlock. “Virga,” literally rod, means the penis. The six-day claim is translated without alteration. Burton gives no separate source beside this sentence; the passage requires collation with the medical authorities he names.

10552.The prescription uses apothecaries’ notation: an. means “of each,” j one, ß one half, and iij three; ʒ denotes a drachm and ℥ an ounce. These historical measures are retained without conversion into modern doses. Nenupharis means water lily; morsuli are small pieces or lozenges of a medicinal confection. The recipe continues across the printed page break.

10553.This sentence closes Member 6, Subsection 1. Hildeshemo is the Latin inflected form of Hildesheim. The promised abundance of similar prescriptions is Burton’s bibliographical claim, not a verification of every recipe.