Origin of Gonorrhoea and Non-Specific Urethritis
1955; BMJ; Volume: 31; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1136/sti.31.4.246
ISSN1472-3263
Autores Tópico(s)Reproductive tract infections research
ResumoRolleston (1934) showed that syphilis did not exist in ancient Greece and Rome.Although he stated that there is no reference to venereal disease in classical literature, in the Arabian Nights, Villon, or Boccaccio's " Decameroa", he rather lamely accepted the well-known passage in "Leviticus" as an indisputable reference to gonorrhoea, and thought that in the prevailing squalor the symptoms and signs passed unnoticed for a thousand years.More recently Dr. H. St. H. Vertue (1953) re-opened the subject with a masterly and even more complete review of classical literature.His article may be summarized as follows:It is generally believed that gonococcal urethritis or gonorrhoea is as old as man, or at least originated in the promiscuous squalor of the ancient eastern civiliza- tions.But not a single mention of the disease can be found in a search through classical, general, and medical literature from the times of Hippocrates to Galen and later.The most cogent arguments of all are perhaps that Juvenal does not note it in any of his sixteen satires, and that Galen, a very acute observer, also fails to describe it.Actually Galen (2nd cent.) did mention gonor- rhoea, but defined it as an unwanted excretion or seeping of semen.Later the Greek word, which means exactly this, was wrongly applied to a contagious urethritis, which probably arose during the late Dark Ages.Accord- ing to Beckett (1717-18, 1723) this was first described by John of Arderne (about 1380) as a burning inflammation (incendiurn interius), and by another 14th-century writer, whoZe manuscript (139J) was in Beckett's possession, as Brenning of the Pyntyl, yat Men call ye Apegalle; it was mistakenly identified with Galen's gonorrhoea by those who could not believe that the master would have missed or omitted it.Galen's famous contemporary, Aretaeus
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