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HIERONYMUS FRACASTOR'S 
 
 I L I S 
 
HIERONYMUS FRACASTOR 
 
 *$$ Hieronymus Fracastor was born in 1483 and died in 1553. 
 He was a poet and a scholar and served as professor of logic 
 at Padua. He published his masterpiece "Syphilis sive 
 Morbus Gallicus" at Venice in 1530. Eloquent, melodious 
 and beautiful, Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus stands well 
 in the front of the world's great poems acd has earned for its 
 author eternal fame. It was from this poem that the word 
 Syphilis had its origin. 
 
Hieronymus Fracastor's 
 
 SYPH 
 
 FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN 
 
 A TRANSLATION 
 IN PROSE OF 
 FRACASTOR'S 
 IMMORTAL 
 POEM 
 
 The Philmar Company 
 
 Saint Louis Missouri 
 
 MCMXI 
 
Copyrig ht, 1911, by 
 
 THE PHILMAR COMPANY 
 
 
THIS CELEBRATED POEM OF 
 
 HIERONYMUS FRA CASTOR 
 
 has endured through nearly four 
 centuries. To the author is due the 
 credit of having given this name 
 which, not only supplanted the many 
 others which had been given to it, 
 but which has persisted to the pres- 
 ent day and is in universal use. 
 Whilst this poem is filled with 
 mythological allusions it affords a 
 good clitiical description of the 
 symptoms of the disease. It shows, 
 throughout its lines, the erudition 
 of its author, his keen appreciation 
 of the importayice of the subject as 
 well as his mastery of the matter in 
 hand. It may be suggested that to 
 treat such a subject in L^tin hex- 
 ameters is not very setious bid we 
 will call the attention of those crit- 
 ics that the poem is merely a putting 
 in verse, by the author, of his small 
 prose treatise, De Contagionibus et 
 Conlagiosis Morbis, published in 
 1546. Born in 1483, Fracastor was 
 still a child when the Morbus Galli- 
 cus made its first appearance in 
 Europe. However, he did not attrib- 
 ute the disease to the invasion of 
 Charles VIII., but regarded it as 
 much more ancient. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS 
 
I SING of that terrible disease, unknown to past cen- 
 turies, which attacked all Europe in one day, and 
 spread itself over a part of Africa and of Asia. I 
 will tell what concourse of influences, what occult germs 
 have caused it, how it arose in Latium at the time that 
 the French a rmies rendered desolate that unhappy coun- 
 try, what reason caused it to be called the French dis- 
 ease. I will tell how in those cruel trials, the genius of 
 man succeeded, with the help of the gods, in discovering 
 the heroic remedy which abated the fury of the plague. 
 I shall interrogate in order to reveal the secret origin of 
 this disease, both the azure plains of the ether and the 
 stars suspended from the vault of the heavens. The field 
 of the unknown and the mysterious domains of Nature 
 open up before me, and my seduced muse permits her- 
 self to be drawn by the learned Sisters of Parnassus. 
 
 Illustrious Bembo, glory of Italy, if thy master has 
 accorded thee some moments of rest, if he permits thee 
 to leave for an instant the helm of the world and devote 
 a short space of thy time to the muse, deign to cast thy 
 eyes on these verses, all unworthy as they may be of thy 
 genius. My work is but a medical essay, but remember 
 that Apollo himself did not look upon it as derogatory 
 to his dignity divine to cultivate the healing art. This 
 subject besides, light in appearance, takes on at times 
 a serious interest; mine under a frivolous guise, will cause 
 to appear before thee the great laws of nature, the de- 
 
 Page Nine 
 
cisions of destiny, and the mysterious origin of a frightful 
 scourge. 
 
 And thou divine Urania, thou who knowest the 
 cause and effects of all things, thou for whom the spaces 
 of air and the depths of the heavens hold no secrets, de- 
 scend to my side under these quiet shades where the 
 breath of the zephyrs, the perfume of the myrtle and the 
 harmonious murmurs of Banacus invite me to sing. Give 
 me the sacred inspiration, and may, in return, as through 
 Olympus thou traversest the luminous field of ether, the 
 sublime choir of the celestial world applaud thy glory. 
 
 Muse, what causes presided at the origin of this 
 scourge so long wrapped in the darkness of nothing ? 
 Was it imported among us from those new worlds which 
 were discovered by the brave mariners of Spain beyond 
 the unknows seas of the Western world ? Have we re- 
 ceived from those far countries the germ where it is said 
 it has reigned as sovereign master from all eternity, num- 
 bering as many victims as there are inhabitants? Is it 
 true that introduced, in that manner, among us it was 
 then spread throughout Europe by means of commercial 
 relations ? Is it true that it was born weak and obscure, 
 to increase its force a hundred fold later on as it extended 
 its ravages and invaded, little by little, the entire universe ? 
 Such as once, springing from a badly extinguished focus 
 which an imprudent shepherd left in the country, a sin- 
 gle spark sufficed to start a conflagration; the fire first 
 slumbers and insidiously spreads in the grass, then bursts 
 out with fury; the flame, fed by the fuel, then raises itself 
 in threatening tongues, devours on its passage the fields 
 
 Page Ten 
 
and prairies, fires forests which fall with a crash, and 
 throws afar off baleful lights on sky and earth. 
 
 No, it is not in this manner that this disease has de- 
 veloped itself. Incontestable testimony proves that it is 
 not of a strange or foreign origin and that it was not 
 necessary to cross the Ocean to arrive in our midst. 
 
 Among the first victims who were attacked in our cli- 
 mate, I could mention a number of patients who were spon- 
 taneously attacked, without having exposed themselves 
 to the least chance of contagion. Besides, how would 
 it be possible to attribute to a contagious influence a dis- 
 ease which attacked so many peoples in such a short 
 time ? As a matter of fact it was on all sides at one 
 time that the scourage was let loose upon us, in Latium, 
 in the fertile fields of Sagra, in the forests of Ausonia, on 
 the plains of Otrantes, on the banks of the Tiber, in the 
 hundred cities that the Eriden enlarges by the hundred 
 streams tributary to it, which lavt: them with its majestic 
 waves. At the same time, in addition, it raged on for- 
 eign shores, and proud Spain, mother of the conquerors 
 of the New World, did not suffer from the cruel attacks 
 earlier than the people of whom the Pyrenees, the Rhine 
 and the Alps are the boundaries. 
 
 In addition to this it was at this time that it made its 
 invasion among us, a people of the North with icy regions, 
 among all of you, descendants of ancient Carthage, fort- 
 unate Egyptians whom the Nile enriches with the treas- 
 ures of its waves, son of Idumea with its evergreen palms. 
 Now, such a disease which attacks the entire universe 
 at one blow could hardly be the product of a simple 
 
 Page Eleven 
 
contagion; other causes must be assuredly recog- 
 nized. 
 
 All beings with which Nature has peopled land, air 
 and the water, have not one mode of creation, which is 
 identical and subject to the same laws. The most sim- 
 ple, whose formation calls but for a few generating prin- 
 ciples, are incessantly reproduced everywhere. Others, 
 more complex, require for their being the help of many 
 germs which are dispersed, succeeding but very rarely and 
 with difficulty in being born at certain times and in cer- 
 tain places. Others, finally, come out of nothingness but 
 after thousands of centuries, so many are the obstacles 
 presented to the germs which are necessary to their 
 genesis and to their union. Well, the same is true of 
 diseases. All diseases do not have a common or iden- 
 tical origin. The ones, the majority even, have an easy 
 development which accounts for their habitual frequency; 
 but, others are of a difficult sort to deliver and succeed 
 but very slowly to constitute themselves, after having 
 long fought against the infinite difficulties which destiny 
 opposed to their birth. Of this number, for instance, is 
 elephantiasis, still unknown by Ausonia, and lichen which 
 remains confined on the banks of the Niie. Of this num- 
 ber is also the French disease which, for a long time 
 wrapped up in the darkness of the nothing, has suddenly 
 freed itself from its bindings, after many centuries of 
 waiting, to finally rise in the light and make an irruption 
 among us. 
 
 It is to be surmised, however, that in the course of 
 the eternity of ages this disease must have shown itself 
 
 Page Twelve 
 
upon earth several times. If we were ignorant of every- 
 thing even including its name when we suffered its attacks, 
 there is no doubt that the traces of its passages have 
 been obliterated by time, time, that pitiless destroyer who 
 reduces to naught everything in its footsteps and who 
 robs us even of the monuments, even of the recollections 
 of our ancestors. 
 
 In the West, on the other hand, on those shores re- 
 cently discovered beyond the Atlantic, this disease is 
 habitual and general. Strange contrast, inexplicable in- 
 fluence of climate and time. In those far-off regions, the 
 scourge reigns as a rule; it occurs there spontaneously; 
 it germinates there at pleasure as if on a soil which has 
 been prepared with a design to receive it, whilst it has 
 not succeeded in developing among us but thousands of 
 years later. 
 
 So you wish to go back, by an analytic method, to 
 the source and origin of this disease ? First of all look 
 at how many countries have be^n struck and how many 
 people have been afflicted. From the immensity of its 
 ravages you will recognize the fact at once that its pro- 
 ductive germs could neither be in the bowels of the earth, 
 nor in the bosom of the waters. In order to have gen- 
 eralized itself in the manner in which it did, it is evidently 
 necessary that the mysterious agent from which it has 
 originated be contained in the air, in the air which bathes 
 and envelopes the entire world, which penetrates all 
 bodies, and which serves as a vehicle for contagious fer- 
 ments. In fact, air is the essential cause and the prin- 
 ciple of all things. If but too often it becomes for us the 
 
 Page Thirteen 
 
source of diseases, it is because the changeable nature 
 of its elements exposes it to corruption; it is because it is 
 equally prompt to impregnate itself with the morbific 
 miasms and to disseminate those with which it is 
 charged. 
 
 Again, consider on the other hand in what manner 
 air may be modified in the course of ages; learn how it 
 conceived the germ of the fatal contagion which it has 
 spread among us. 
 
 The sun and the stars are the sovereign masters to 
 whom the air and the earth and the waters do servile 
 obedience. Their course and their evolutions in the 
 heavens rule the course of the elements. Thus, directly 
 Phebus approaches the earth by directing his rapid 
 coursers to the South, cold winter shows itself with rigor; 
 the soil hardens and is covered with frost and ice stops 
 the course of rivers. On the other hand, hardly has the 
 God of Day entered in the sign of Cancer, but the burn- 
 ing Summer devours the fields and the woods, dries up 
 the prairies and covers the tilled parts with an arid dust. 
 And it is not doubtful, either, that the elements in their 
 state of repose in the same manner as during the great 
 revolutions which agitate them, are subject to multiple 
 sidereal influences which they obey, either from the moon, 
 the queen of night, which holds under its laws the seas 
 and all the moist principles of nature, or from the sinister 
 star Saturn, or from the beneficent fires of Jupiter, the 
 rays of Mars and of Venus. Those manifestations be- 
 come especially marked when the stars deviate from their 
 courses and when several of them converge upon one 
 
 Page Fourteen 
 
point of the sky. Such disturbances, it is true, as signs 
 of divine will, do not produce themselves except at rare 
 intervals and after a long series of regular cycles. But, 
 when they do accomplish their end, when the hour fixed 
 for them by destiny has sounded, then, oh misfortune; 
 the earth, the air, and the waters are suddenly turned 
 over to fearsome cataclysms. At times it is thick clouds 
 which steal the light of day; the sky melts into water; 
 torrents hurl themselves from the crests of mountains, 
 carrying away, in their impetuous force, trees, rocks, and 
 flocks of animals; raising above their banks their roaring 
 waves, the Erida and the Ganges inundate cities, sub- 
 merge forests, and form new streams. At other times, 
 it is the unchained winds which blow with fury, or sub- 
 terranean storms which shake the ground and throw over 
 the walls of cities. Perhaps even, alas ! there will come 
 a day, an unlucky day marked by Nature and the 
 Destinies, when those countries which we inhabit today 
 will either be changed into an uncultivated desert or be 
 swallowed up in the waves; or the sun himself, Oh pro- 
 digy ! will follow a new course in space; or the seasons 
 will be turned topsy-turvy; or extraordinary heats or colds 
 will desolate the world; during which unknown animals 
 will rise to the light, borrowing their principle of life from 
 the eternal source of all creation ! 
 
 Who knows whether the earth at such a time, trying 
 itself at more arduous labors may not produce anew some 
 Encelatae, Ceae, Typhae, daring Titans, who will at- 
 tempt for a second time to pile Olympus on Ossa in 
 order to scale the heavens, their old home ? 
 
 Page Fifteen 
 
In view of such sights, how can it be doubted but 
 that, on some fatal day, prepared in the course of ages 
 and the revolutions of the sky, the air can suddenly 
 charge the world with pestilential germs and afflict it 
 with this unknown scourge ? 
 
 Shall I cite to you an example ? Two hundred 
 years ago, at the precise time that Mars united his rays 
 with the baleful fires of Saturn, there was suddenly ob- 
 served rising on the banks of the Ganges, among the 
 people who viewed the rise of Aurora, a fever of a na- 
 ture absolutely new. This fever — horrible thing! — tore 
 waves of blood from the palpitating bosom of its victims, 
 and but too often ended itself on the fourth day by a 
 mortal crisis. From its primitive cradle it soon spread 
 itself in Assyria, in Persia, on the banks of the Tigris, 
 then in Arabia, Egypt and Phrygia; and from there, 
 crossing the immensity of the seas, it came to infect Italy, 
 to extend afterwards over the whole of Europe. 
 
 If then you wish to know the origin and the cause of 
 this scourge which now afflicts us, raise your looks to the 
 ethereal spaces, the abode of the Immortals, to search 
 with me what the situation of the stars was and what 
 presages they furnished at the time that this disease ap- 
 peared among us. Look ! At that fateful moment all 
 the greater stars converged on that point of the sky where 
 Cancer, the vigilant sentinel, seems to watch, his arms 
 extended over the gates of Olympus, on that sinister 
 point where are always formulated the unlucky signs of 
 calamities which are to come ! And thence all those 
 united stars spread in the air their rays conjured against 
 
 Page Sixteen 
 
us ! Such presages did not escape Sirenis, initiated long 
 before by Urania in the knowledge of stars and of di- 
 vine prescience, the wise old men having but seen the 
 threatening aspect of the sky, from a high hill, suddenly 
 cried out: "All-powerful gods, pity, pity for unfortunate 
 mortals ! How many disasters, how many calamities do 
 I see suspended above your heads? An awful pestilence 
 infecting the atmosphere, impious wars desolating Europe, 
 blood pouring in torrents in the plains of Ausonia." 
 Prophetic words which he himself placed in his writ- 
 ings. 
 
 The time had come when, after the completion of 
 several centuries, the sovereign ruler of the world was, 
 according to an eternal law, to future destinies of the 
 earth and of the heavens, Jupiter prepared himself for 
 this great work, to which he invited Mars and Saturn. 
 On the appointed day, Cancer opened the doors of 
 Olympus to the Immortals. Mars was the first to cross 
 the threshold of the sacred place. From his impetuous 
 gait, his glistening armor, the god 01 war was easily 
 recognized, the cruel god who slakes his thirst with blood 
 and carnage. Calm and majestic Jupiter next appeared, 
 carried on a golden chariot, Jupiter always benevolent 
 and good to mortals, unless contrary destinies claim his 
 clemency. Saturn came last, holding his scythe in his 
 hand. It is not alone the fatigue of a long journey, 
 joined to the weight of years, which have delayed this 
 old man; always irritated against his rebellious son and 
 only obeying him with reluctance, he stopped several 
 times on the road, undecided and ready to retrace his 
 
 Page Seventeen 
 
steps ; even when entering he could not hide his anger 
 nor repress muttered threats. 
 
 Nevertheless, Jupiter sat on the throne where he alone 
 had the right to sit. He consults the oracles and regu- 
 lates the destinies of future periods. He cannot con- 
 template, without pain and compassion, the calamities of 
 all sorts that will afflict the world, wars, revolutions, the 
 demolition of Kingdoms and cataclysms giving up the 
 earth to the empire of death, a new and fearsome pesti- 
 lence whose ravages the resources of human genius will 
 be unable to stop ! Despite this, it is settled, the voice 
 of the gods has shaken Olympus and the fatal decree is 
 pronounced. 
 
 A subtle poison at once spreads itself in the ether 
 and disseminates its pernicious effluvia throughout the 
 immensity of space. 
 
 What was the origin of this poison ? Are we to 
 believe that the sun's rays, associated with the malign 
 influence of the stars, raised from the bosom of the earth 
 and of the waters unhealthful vapors which spread in 
 the air contagious miasms, the germs of a disease as yet 
 unknown? Or, on the other hand, were these miasms 
 engendered in the upper regions of the atmosphere, from 
 which as a consequence, they descended among us ? It 
 cannot be told, how many mysteries of the sky unfold to 
 our eyes, how difficult it is to go back to the origin of 
 causes, which at times are separated from their effects by 
 long series of years, and at others are mingled with 
 events in an inextricable confusion. 
 
 Add to this that Nature may vary at its will the in- 
 
 Page Eighteen 
 
fluence of epidemic miasms. Thus, at times, the infected 
 air pours its poisons only on vegetation, killing the flowers 
 and the tender buds, tainting the wheat with an unclean 
 rust, destroying all hopes of crops, changing seeds as 
 deep as the very bosom of earth. At other times it is 
 the animals only that are struck, and that, either all at 
 once, or only a few among all. I remember, for instance, 
 in a year that was remarkable not only for an unusual 
 and suspicious fertility of the soil, but also by an exces- 
 sive frequency of Southern winds and of autumnal rains, 
 that all goats — and only goats — were affected by disease. 
 They came out of the sheds full of vigor and health ; 
 then, at the same moment that they were cheerfully 
 browsing the grass of the meadows, they were attacked 
 with a suffocating cough, a certain prelude of death. 
 They were then seen to turn convulsively on themselves 
 and fall exhausted, among their companions, and soon 
 give up their last breath. Then, a surprising thing; in 
 the spring and in the summer which followed, it became 
 the turn of the various cattle, whom a malignant fever 
 decimated to the point of almost completely destroying 
 them. As a matter of fact, celestial influences are varied 
 in an infinite degree like the events derived from them, 
 and to each one of them is intimately bound a certain 
 order of phenomena. 
 
 And on the other hand, what diversity in the morbid 
 germs, what oddity in their effects ! You shall judge of 
 them. 
 
 The miasms contained in the atmosphere are found 
 in direct contact with the eyes ; well, it is not only the 
 
 Page Nineteen 
 
eyes that they affect, it is the lung that they will reach 
 in the depths of the chest ! In the same manner also 
 we occasionally see the tender grape preserve itself intact 
 next to hardier fruits which die away ; and when, in its 
 turn, it dies, either by impoverishment of the seed, or by 
 a swelling or a shrinking of its pores, it is never so except 
 under the influence of causes that are proper to it. 
 
 Let us now study the symptoms of this scourge which 
 a celestial influx has caused and reproduced after centu- 
 ries that it was forgotton. This disease does not affect 
 the dumb inhabitants of the wave, nor the wild beasts of 
 the forests, nor the birds of the sky, nor horses nor cattle. 
 It only has to do with man; man alone is its prey. 
 
 In the human body, it is the blood that it attacks at 
 first, and, feeding on naught but fat and viscid humors, 
 it is on the fat and corrupted parts of this fluid that it 
 preferably attaches itself. 
 
 Here especially, O muse, I claim thy help to limn 
 the picture of this execrable pestilence. Deign also to 
 inspire me, Apollo, god of the day, god of poetry, and 
 make matters such that my work may, thanks to thee, 
 remain through coming centuries. A day, in fact, may 
 perhaps come when our great grand nephews will take 
 the pleasure of consulting the description of a forgotten 
 disease. Forgotten, yes, for no one doubts at a given 
 time this disease will return into the clouds of nothing- 
 ness. And no one doubts also but that, after another 
 series of centuries, it will return to the light, to afflict 
 anew the world and once more spread terror among the 
 peoples of another age. 
 
 Page Twenty 
 
One of the most surprising of facts is that, after hav- 
 ing contracted the germ of the contagion, the victim at- 
 tacked by the scourge does not often present any lesion 
 that is well marked before the moon has four times ac- 
 complished its travels. The disease, in fact, does not 
 show itself at once by accusing symptoms directly that it 
 has penetrated the organism. For a certain time it 
 broods in silence, as if it were gathering its forces for a 
 more terrible explosion. During this period, at all events, 
 a strange languor seizes the patient and depresses his 
 whole being ; his mind seems heavy, his limbs are soft, 
 and weakening, fail for work; the eye loses its flash and 
 the face is depressed in its expression and has become pale. 
 
 It is on the organs of generation that the virus first is 
 transported, to irradiate from there to the neighboring 
 parts and on the regions of the groin. 
 
 Soon after, more well defined symptoms show them- 
 selves. When the light of day disappears to give place 
 to the shades of night, at the time when the inner heat 
 of living bodies leaves the peripheral t =irts to concentrate 
 upon the viscera, atrocious pains suddenly burst forth in 
 the limbs charged with vitiated humors and torture the 
 articulations, the arms, the shoulders, the calves. It is 
 because at that moment, vigilant Nature, an enemy of all 
 impurity, is at work to react against the putrid ferments 
 which the disease has introduced into the veins and with 
 which it has penetrated all the humors, all the nourishing 
 juices of the organisms. She strains to drive them away; 
 she energetically fights against them. But they resist ; 
 thick, viscid, not displacing themselves except slowly, 
 
 Page Tweaty-ooe 
 
they fix themselves on the muscles, they attach them- 
 selves to the exsanguined framework of the tissues, and 
 give rise to horrible sufferings wherever they adhere. 
 
 The most subtle of these morbid humors, those which 
 are the most easily evacuated, take refuge either in the 
 skin or in the extremities of the limbs. They then pro- 
 duce hideous eruptions on those points and these exan- 
 thems soon spread over the whole body and cover the 
 face with a repulsive mask. 
 
 Unknown up to our days, these eruptions consist of 
 pustules and conical pimples, which, gorged with cor- 
 rupted liquids, are not slow in opening to allow the 
 escape of a mucous and virulent sanious liquid. Even, 
 sometimes, the pimples that are similar develop in the 
 depths of organs and noiselessly corrode the tissues. It 
 is thus that horrible ulcers are seen covering the limbs, 
 denuding the bones, eating the lips and penetrating the 
 throat, from which there only issues a weak and plaintive 
 voice. 
 
 At other times, again, there exhales from the skin 
 thick humors which dry into fearsome crusts on the sur- 
 face of the integument. Like these are seen the viscid 
 juices which come from the cherry tree or the almond tree 
 condensing in a gummy callus on the bark of these trees. 
 
 Ah ! how many patients, sorrowful victims of this 
 plague have contemplated with horror their faces and their 
 bodies covered with the hideous taints, deploring their 
 youth destroyed in its bloom, and have cursed the gods and 
 threatened the sky ! Unfortunates ! Night which pours 
 sweet repose upon all nature, has no more charms for 
 
 Page Twenty -two 
 
them, for sleep has fled from their eyes. For them, in 
 the same manner, aurora comes without attractions, for 
 day like night recalls their pains. The pleasures of the 
 table, joyous feasts, the intoxicating gifts of Bacchus, the 
 festivities of the city, the delights of the country, nothing 
 smiles for them any more. Vainly do they search for a 
 respite to their sufferings on green banks made pleasant 
 by the purling of streams, in the shade of valleys, and in 
 the solitude of mountains. Desperate, lost, they return 
 addressing ardent prayers to the gods, burning expiatory 
 incense in the temples, loading altars with rich gifts. 
 Useless trouble ! The gods remain deaf to their voices 
 and disdain their sacrifices. 
 
 O painful recollection ! In rich Canomania, which 
 the Olilius renders fertile before uniting its waves with 
 those of the Sabine, there lived a young and rich patrician 
 whom all Ausonia could have envied for his renown and 
 happiness. Strong in the flower of his age, he took 
 pleasure either in mastering the nature of an untrained 
 horse, or in shining in a tourney his helmet on and sword 
 in hand, or contesting for the prizes of a trial in the gym- 
 nasium, or in hunting the deer, or in forcing wild beasts 
 back into the depths of forests. His face shone with a 
 divine beauty. All of you, O nymphs of the Olilius and 
 of the Eridan, goddesses of the fields and of the woods, 
 all I say burned for him secret fires and sought his love. 
 And, perhaps, it was one of you, irritated by his indiffer- 
 ence, who called upon his head the anger of the gods. 
 Alas ! he enjoyed life in full security when the terrible 
 scourge struck him. Ah ! never was seen, and never 
 
 Page Twenty- three 
 
more will the lamentable victim be seen ! Flower of 
 youth, the brilliance of health, the vigor of the soul, all 
 these wither in him under the pressure of an unpitying 
 disease. A hideous leprosy invades his entire body ; his 
 swollen bones become a prey to caries ; his nose is eaten 
 by a malignant ulcer ; and, as a limit of affliction, his 
 eyes, so beautiful, the clear mirrors of the day are de- 
 voured by a fearsome ulcer ! Death finally took pity on 
 him and hastened the end of his torture. Long regrets 
 followed him from the nymphs of the woods and of the 
 fields ; the Alps, the Olilius and the Eridan gave their 
 tears, and the Sabine itself gave a muffled groan at the 
 news of his demise. 
 
 Such were the evils that Saturn spread upon the 
 earth in those fateful days! And not less enraged 
 against us, Mars afflicted us, at the same time, with a 
 thousand disasters. It seemed as if the Eumarides had 
 been sworn to encompass our ruin, and that from the 
 bottom of the Styx or the depths of Tartarus hell had 
 unchained upon us all the scourges at one time, pesti- 
 lence, war, famine and death ! 
 
 O Saturn, father of Latium, O protecting gods of 
 Ausonia, what crimes have your children committed to 
 merit such punishments? Is there any affliction, is there 
 some pain which we have not exhausted? Was there 
 ever a nation more cruelly tried by the vengeance of 
 heaven? I, Parthanope, shall be the first to tell of the 
 disease to which thou has submitted us, the massacre of 
 thy Kings, the ravage of thy states, the captivity of thy 
 people ! Shall I also speak of those murderous combats 
 
 Page Twenty-fo«r 
 
which witnessed the flowing Italian blood mingled with 
 the French? Shall I tell of those days of carnage 
 when the reddened waves of the Tar poured into the 
 Eridan so many spoils of war, so many dead bodies of 
 men and of hair piled about in confusion? Even thou, 
 nymph of Abdua, did not fail to see thy bosom soiled 
 by the blood of ours, and the Eridan could not allay 
 thy pain except by mingling its tears with thine, by 
 uniting its waves with thy desolate billows ! And thus, 
 unfortunate Ausonia, thus it is that discord has ruined 
 thy power and has robbed thee of the sceptre of the 
 world, the heritage of thy ancestors. Does there remain 
 in the whole extent of thy empire, does there remain a 
 single shred of ground which has not suffered the out- 
 rages of conquest, the insult of the conqueror and the 
 horror of carnage ? Answer, ye, banks which the 
 Erethene fecundates before precipitating itself in the 
 Adriatic, mingling its waves with those of the river of 
 the Euganeans, answer calm vineyards, who until then 
 had never known the click of arms or the brawl of 
 combats ! 
 
 O my fatherland, sacred soil, cradle of the gods, 
 Italy, mother of so many heroes, opulent country which 
 the Adigus and the Benacus fecundate, thou whom the 
 entire world envied formerly for its peaceful prosperity, 
 who today would be able to recite thy own fortunes, to 
 enumerate thy disasters, thy outrages, thy sufferings? 
 Ah, lower thy head, bend thy humiliated face. Bena- 
 cus, go, thy waves no longer bathe the land of laurels ! 
 And, as if so much misfortune, and so many troubles 
 
 Page Twenty-five 
 
were not enough, here is the limit of affliction, that the 
 hope of Latium, the honor of letters, the loved disciple 
 of Pallas, has been taken from us. Mark Anthony is no 
 more ! Jealous death snatched him from the arms of 
 the Muses and struck him in the springtime of his age. 
 He now rests on the rocky banks where the Banacus 
 rolls its murmuring waves. The Nymphs of the Adiga 
 weep for him ; for the adjacent groves heard during one 
 night the well beloved voice of Catullus sighing melo- 
 dious regrets on his tomb. And, at the same time, the 
 armies of the King of France devastated our provinces 
 and subjugated Liguna. The emperor, on the other 
 hand, passed iron and fire over the territory of the 
 Euganeans, ravaging the shores of the Sila and loading 
 with chains the rebellious Frioul ; entire Italy was plunged 
 into mourning and desolation ! 
 
 Syphilidis Liber Secundus. 
 
 I will now, following my work, state here the diet 
 and treatment which are proper to oppose to the disease 
 according to its phases and different forms; I will reveal 
 the marvelous agents which were discovered to com- 
 bat it. 
 
 At the beginning, amid the consternation produced 
 by a disease unknown up to that time, a thousand reme- 
 dies were tried which were all powerless. But stimula- 
 ted by the darts of sufferings, otherwise illuminated by 
 his first reverses, man learned how to find new arms 
 against this redoubted enemy ; he fought against the 
 
 Page Twenty-six 
 
scourge, he threw it, he was enabled one day to pro- 
 claim himself victor. 
 
 I believe, to tell the truth, that divine help was not 
 a stranger to this victory and sustains us at our wish in 
 these cruel trials. For, at the very time when evil doing 
 stars persuade us with their anger, Heaven had for us 
 pitying looks and gave us, in the midst of our misfor- 
 tunes, days of peaceful prosperity. Our century, with- 
 out doubt, has undergone misfortunes without number. 
 It has seen the world invaded by a new pestilence ; it 
 has seen impious wars overturn empires, and drench our 
 devastated homes with blood, terrible fires consume 
 entire cities, sacreligious cohorts profane sacred temples, 
 terrible famines render desolate the universe, inundations 
 submerge our fields and carry off on their way, men, 
 flocks, crops and forests S But this same country, on the 
 other hand, has viewed the most majestic spectacles that 
 were ever produced in the eternity of ages. It has seen 
 our intrepid fleets conquer the immensity of the seas. 
 We had already discovered the Hesperides, neighbors 
 of Atlas ; already we had doubled Presson, under the 
 antarctic pole, explored the precipitous banks of the 
 Raptus and gathered the tributes of Persia and of 
 Arabia. All these conquests, nevertheless, did not suf- 
 fice for our ambition ; we had to push back the limits of 
 the old world. For this purpose our hardy navigators 
 penetrated, beyond the Indies and the Ganges, into 
 those countries which look upon the rise of Aurora and 
 up to Cyambus whose forests give us ebony and macer; 
 for these things, and guided by the gods, our valiant 
 
 Page Twenty-seven 
 
squadron approached a new continent, different from ours 
 both in its peoples and in the splendor of its firmament. 
 Our century may also honor itself in that sublime 
 poet, who celebrated in his verses the great cycles of 
 the stars, the gardens of the Hesperides and the revolu- 
 tions of the sky. Parthenope and the Sebethus ap- 
 plauded his divine accents, and the sacred manes of 
 Virgil shook at his voice. 
 
 And if thy modesty, illustrious Bembo, forces me to 
 forget thee here, thou and several of our contemporaries 
 whom grateful posterity will place in the same rank as 
 the greatest geniuses of antiquity, how could I not men- 
 tion, among the glories of this country, the name of the 
 illustrious pontiff whom Rome is proud to obey and of 
 whom Latium is so proud? Under thy auspices, O 
 Leo, the malign influences of the stars have vanished, 
 and Jupiter has not poured upon us any but the propi- 
 tious fires of his purest rays. It is thou, and thou alone, 
 who, after so many disturbances and storms, hast re- 
 called to us the exiled muses ; it is thou who hast re- 
 turned to Italy both her ancient laws, and her sanctuaries 
 of justice, and her sacred temples. It is thou who, for 
 the defense of Rome, and of our altars, art preparing 
 today a holy crusade ; and already, at the mere sound 
 of thy arms, the Euphrates and the Nile shake with 
 terror, the Euxine retreats frightened, and the nymph of 
 the Egean flees all lost to the Doric shore. 
 
 But I must leave to other voices the honor of cele- 
 brating so many brilliant facts ; perhaps noble Bembo, 
 thou deservest for thyself the care of marking for future 
 
 Page Twenty -eight 
 
centuries the memorable history. My muse dares not 
 aspire to such subjects ; she has put upon herself a more 
 humble task, whose course she will pursue. 
 
 Blood has not the same identical composition in all 
 patients. If it is pure, it is a good presage ; if, on the 
 contrary, it is thick, superabundant and charged with 
 bile, the disease, under such conditions will be more 
 serious, more rebellious, and will only give way to the 
 use of more energetic measures, as well as more violent. 
 
 That which is the most essential to a cure, is to 
 surprise the disease at its inception, to strangle it in the 
 form of a germ before it has had time to invade the 
 viscera. For when it has penetrated into the organism, 
 when it has taken root and developed its ravages, it is 
 alas! but at the price of rough experience that one 
 can succeed in expelling it. Apply yourself then, be- 
 fore all, to combat it at its very inception, and engrave 
 in your mind the precepts which will follow. 
 
 Patients, the quality of the air that you breathe, is 
 far from being an indifferent matter. Learn how to 
 avoid winds from the south ; flee from the fogs and from 
 wet grounds with pernicious effluvia. Choose for a stay 
 a laughing country with uncovered horizon or some hill- 
 side bathed by the sun. Only there will you find pure 
 air, continually renewed by the winds and the friendly 
 zephyrs. 
 
 Especially guard yourself against laziness and non- 
 chalance. Go, go drive in their dens the bear and the 
 boar ; hunt the deer from the crests of mountains to the 
 foot of the valleys and into the depths of the woods. 
 
 Page Twenty -nine 
 
As a fact, I have often seen the disease clear up by the 
 sweating and cure after long runs in the forests. This 
 is not all. Without false shame, take in hand the 
 plough and turn its share in the bosom of the earth; 
 armed with a hoe tear up the underbrush, strike with an 
 axe the towering oak, uproot the sycamore. Even at 
 home or in the evening, do not remain inactive. May 
 dancing, shuttle-cock and palestra be then for you useful 
 and salutary exercises. No truce for the disease ! 
 And, if such labors cause you to often bitterly regret 
 the charms of a sweet repose and the delights of a soft 
 and downy couch, resist, resist with courage! Sleep 
 and repose are your enemies; under the appearance of 
 a deceptive ease, they would do naught but feed and 
 render worse the disease in your bosom. 
 
 Drive away far from you the anxieties, preoccupa- 
 tions, and regrets; far from you the trouble of passions 
 and the assiduity of serious studies ! What suits your 
 state is the mild business of the muses, it is joyous 
 couplets, and frolicsome dances. At all events do not 
 succumb to the attractions of love ; nothing could be 
 more harmful, and your kisses would taint the tender 
 daughters of Venus with a detestable contagion. Noth- 
 ing is more important for you than the ordering of your 
 diet and the choice of foods. Upon this point redouble 
 your attention and vigilance. In the first place banish 
 from the table all fish, no matter which they are, fish 
 from rivers or ponds, from fresh or from salt water. At 
 most you may, in case of necessity, indulge in those that 
 are fished near bluffs or falls and whose meat is white, 
 
 Page Thirty 
 
soft and delicate; such are, for example, the phycine, 
 the dorade, the gudgeon, the perch, friend of rocky 
 shores, and the scare, sole ruminant of the waves, the 
 constant guest of the mouths of rivers. Also abstain 
 from aquatic birds which, living along the banks of rivers 
 or in swamps, feed on nothing but fish. In the same 
 manner avoid duck with its flesh charged with fat, 
 goose, which long ago saved the Capital, the full quail, 
 the bacon and entrails of the hog, the loin of boars 
 which have fallen under your blows in your murderous 
 hunts, cold cucumber, provocative truffles, artichokes, 
 onions with the acrid and piquant taste, vinegar and 
 milk. 
 
 Do not let yourself be tempted either by the spark- 
 ling or frothy wines of the shores of Corsica, of Faler- 
 num or of Puini, or those which are produced in our 
 small forms by the grape of Rhetia. Nothing will be less 
 healthful for you than the light wines of the Sabine or 
 those of which the Naiads will have dulled the generous 
 odors. On the other hand, that of which you may freely 
 use, is comprised in all simple foods which are healthful 
 and of which Nature is generous in gardens, and which 
 are the delight to the gods ; mint, cress, chicory, hare's 
 lettuce whose flower braves hoar frost, skirret, the friend 
 of small streams, sweet marlum, calamus with perfumed 
 odor, the coquettish melissa, ox-tongue which thrives best 
 on the edges of fountains, packet, spinage, sorrel, sam- 
 phire with salty buds, hops which interlaces with brush, 
 byronia of which I advise you to gather the young before 
 the adult branch has spoilt the shoots and spread its seeds 
 
 Page Thirty-one 
 
that are turning green. But I stop, for I cannot mention 
 all. Other cares demand my attention also. O muse, 
 it is time to leave the shade of Aonia to approach the 
 domain of nature. A new career opens before my steps. 
 May I gather there, in default of poetic laurels, the hum- 
 bler crown of oak leaves, as the prize of my efforts de- 
 voted to the saving of so many victims ! If the disease 
 occurs in Spring or even in Autumn, if the patient is 
 young, robust, and plethoric, the indication is to open 
 the basilic vein or even the median, in order to free the 
 body of corrupted blood. In addition, no matter what 
 the season, hasten to place purgatives at work ; for, this 
 is the most certain means of evacuating peccant humors 
 and morbid ferments. At all events it is proper not to 
 have recourse to them until after due preparation of the 
 channels by resolvents, cutting medicines, and such as 
 delay action. 
 
 Now, to work ! First of all prepare a decoction in 
 which you will add to the thyme of Crete that of para- 
 philia so similar to thymber, almost to its hardness, the 
 tops of hops with the undulating stem, fennel, smallage, 
 fumitory, whose leaves simulate the arms of marine pulp, 
 capillaria which remains dry on the bosom of the waters, 
 sterile ceterach, hart's tongue with reddish filiata. Make 
 use of this remedy until all the humors have arrived to a 
 perfect cooking. Then, at that moment seize the favor- 
 able occasion to put to use the favorable properties of 
 squills with the acrid taste, of bitter colocynth, of helle- 
 bore, sea star whose flowers change color three times 
 daily, ginger, wild cucumber, olibanum, myrrh, bdellium, 
 
 Page Thirty-two 
 
gum ammoniac, opoponax and hermodactylum. Having 
 done this, if your constitution is delicate or enfeebled and 
 refuses the use of these violent remedies which could 
 assure your liberty in a short time, it is proper to have 
 recourse only to a medication that is more mild and more 
 slowly curative. In such a case here are the remedies 
 to employ to complete the cure and dissipate the last re- 
 mains of a disease which is ever ready to take on insidi- 
 ous recrudescences. 
 
 First of all, on account of their drying and antiseptic 
 properties, resinous substances of all sorts are indicated 
 such as myrrh, olibanum, the resin of cedar, aspalath, 
 cypress with its evergreen foliage, aromatic gallingate» 
 odoriferous cassia, cinnamon with two perfumes, carda- 
 mon, mace and aloe3 wood. It is still scordium, a strong 
 antidote whose powers dissipate the effects of all poisons 
 and of every virus. This valued plant grows in the 
 meadows and on the edges of marshes. You will easily 
 recognize it by its purple flower, its odor of garlic, of its 
 appearance which recalls the common germanger. Go 
 and pluck in the morning, at sunrise, the leaves and the 
 roots to prepare a salutary decoction of which you will 
 have to make use for a long time. 
 
 And thou, especially, noble lemon tree, the pride of 
 the Hespendes, precious gift of the Orient, fear not that 
 my muse will forget thee here. Already rendered cele- 
 brated by illustrious poets, deign again to accept the 
 homage of a physician. May thy brow be crowned 
 with eternal verdure, may thy thick branches be deco- 
 rated with perfumed flowers and bend beneath the 
 
 Page Thirty-three 
 
weight of their golden fruit! Divine tree, which Venus 
 endowed with marvelous powers as a souvenir of her 
 dear Adonis, we hail thee who, in actual trouble, fur- 
 nishes us the most useful help for our disease. 
 
 Another remedy imagined by the industry of man. 
 Look at that glass ball with a tapering neck, with a 
 roundish paunch. There has just been poured in it some 
 water together with a few handfuls of ivy leaves and of 
 dittany, or roots of orris, of perprunum and of elder. In 
 a short time, under the influence of the flame, the liquid 
 comes to a small boil ; light vapors are freed and fill the 
 dome of the apparatus ; but hardly have they touched 
 its walls cooled by the outer air than they condense in a 
 dew, running on the cap and flowing into the serpentine 
 tube. The liquid obtained by this ingenious distillation 
 possesses marvelous powers to dissolve the last ferments 
 of the disease. It must be taken hot in glassful doses, in 
 the morning while in bed, in such manner as to excite 
 copious sweats. During the course of th ; « treatment, 
 there are at times noted terrific pains which cruelly tor- 
 ture the limbs. Hasten to alleviate them by the use of 
 different topical remedies, such as notably wool-fat, oil 
 of mastic, goose grease, linseed, mucilage, daffodils, elder, 
 honey, saffron of Crete, and dregs of oil. 
 
 At other times, it is a malign ulcer which appears in 
 the mouth or throat. Attack it, without loss of time, 
 with verdigris, to kill it in its germ state, before it has 
 spread its ravages. This caustic associated with fats and 
 with dessicants, will be equally useful to employ for the 
 destruction of pustules, to dissolve callosities and cicatrize 
 
 Poge Thirty- foot 
 
eating ulcers. But it is in vain, I suppose, that you have 
 exhausted the entire series of these remedies ; or, per- 
 haps, impatient of such slowness, relying upon your 
 strength and your health, you resolve to turn to more 
 energetic agents, to end the matter with the hated enemy 
 as soon as possible. Be it so ! I will show you these 
 violent and expeditious methods which can triumph, in a 
 short time, over a disease that is usually long in duration, 
 stubborn, subject to relapses and rebellious to mild medi- 
 cation. But also learn the price you will have to pay 
 for your hasty deliverance. 
 
 First of all here is a treatment which consists in the 
 use of fumigations composed of styrax, of cinnabar, of 
 minium, of antimony, and of incense. We have here, 
 without doubt, an active medication, which succeeds in 
 cleaning the body of its awful taints ; but it is excessively 
 violent, irritating, and uncertain in its results. In addition 
 it brings on respiratory difficulties and a true suffocation. 
 Therefore, these fumigations, in my opinion should never 
 be used on the entire body ; it is proper to limit their 
 action to those parts which are the seat of eruptions or 
 of ulcers. Another method of which mercury forms 
 the basis is much preferable. As a fact, the action of 
 mercury on the scourge is marvelous, either because its 
 natural affiinity for heat and cold renders it proper to ab- 
 sorb the devouring fire of the disease; or, because its 
 surprising density permits it to divide and to dissolve the 
 humors for a reason that is analogous to that which gives 
 to incandescent iron a caustic action more marked than 
 that of a light flame ; or that its mobile and penetrating 
 
 Page Thirty-fiTe 
 
molecules, apt to infiltrate themselves in the warp of tis- 
 sues, have the power of pursuing and consuming even to 
 the b ^ttom of organs the impure yeasts of the disease ; 
 or finally that its magic virtues are derived from some 
 occult force whose mystery escapes us. But, I stop, for 
 before all I must here state how that remedy was re- 
 vealed to man by a divine hand, and celebrate in my 
 verses this good deed of the gods. 
 
 In a valley of Syria, shaded by the luxuriant foliage 
 of willows and cut by the murmuring waves of Calhrhoe, 
 there formerly lived, it is said, a husbandman named 
 Ilceus. He divided his tranquil life between the labors 
 of his field, and the cultivalion of a garden consecrated to 
 the gods of the field in which grew through his care gallin- 
 gate, the cassia tree, and perfumed ginger. Suddenly, 
 O horrors, he was struck by the terrible scourge. The 
 unfortunate man, in his distress, called the heavens to his 
 aid: "Ye gods that I adore," he cried, "have pity on my 
 torture! And thou, beneficent Callirhoe, thou who al- 
 ways curest our ills, do not forget that but a few days 
 since I made an offering to thee, on the trunk of an oak, 
 of the carcass of the deer that had fallen under my blows. 
 Powerful divinities, if your clemency delivers me from 
 this awful disease which tortures me night and day, my 
 grateful hand will not cease to load your altars with 
 crowns and flowers. From this time on my most pleas- 
 ing violets and my whitest lilies go to you; to you the 
 budding roses and the first hyacinths of my humble place." 
 He spoke and fell back exhausted on the grass. 
 
 Page Thirty-aix 
 
At that time Callirhoe was bathing herself in a 
 neighboring grotto. She heard his prayer and those 
 vows. She at once answered Ilceus by the cares ing 
 murmur of her limpid waves which flowed upon the moss 
 of the rocks. She then sent him sleep to assuage his 
 pains; and, whilst he was resting in peace beneath the 
 fresh shade of the willows, she appeared to him in a 
 dream, arising from the bosom of the waters, and said* 
 
 "Ilceus, at last the gods, in answer to my prayer, 
 have taken pity on thee, but, alas! the remedy, the only 
 remedy, that may cure thee of thy ills, thou shall hunt in 
 vain in this part of the world that the Sun lights with his 
 rays. Such in fact is the inexorable chastisement which 
 has been visited upon thee by Diana and her brother 
 Apollo, the very day that thou didst pierce with thy ar- 
 rows the sacred deer of whose carcass thou didst make 
 an offering to me. Diana saw thy victim panting upon 
 the ground and bathed in blood; she saw thy fatal trophy 
 suspended on one of the oaks of the neighboring forest; 
 and in her grief she cursed thee! It is she and the son 
 of Latona, excited against thee by the anger of his sister, 
 who have afflicted thee with a horrible disease; and both 
 have sworn that every where in which their empire extends 
 thou shalt find no remedy for thy sufferings. There 
 remains for thee, as the only resource, to seek thy safety 
 in the bowels of the earth a id the darkness of the infer- 
 nal regions. Listen! Under a neighboring rock, a dark 
 cavern opens and it reveals to the eyes of mortals a dense 
 forest of oak trees; a horrible chasm, which is terrifying, in 
 
 Page Thirty-seven 
 
which the cedar with plaintive murmurs alone troubles 
 the eternal silence. Let the next sunrise see thee there, 
 immolate a black sheep and offer it to Cybele, burning 
 cypress and thuja in honor of Erebus, of the shades and 
 of the unknown divinities of Tartarus. Thy prayers will 
 be heard, and a nymph will come offering herself to thee 
 as a guide for thy steps in the dark roads which lead to 
 the center of the earth. She herself, will also point out 
 to thee the remedy that thou implorest. Take courage! 
 And do not believe thyself to be deceived, at this time, 
 by the illusion of a dream. Look, recognize me! I am 
 Callirhoe, the Nymph friend, whose waters fecundate 
 the fields which thou dost cultivate." She had spoken 
 and at once plunged in the blue waves. 
 
 Ilceus awakes, "intoxicated with joy." "Beneficent 
 goddess," he cries, "I accept thy presage, I will obey 
 thee; I will go, divine virgin, whither thy voice calls me!" 
 
 The next day, at the earliest streak of dawn, he pro- 
 ceeded to the cavern. He found its entrance under im- 
 mense rocks which the tree of Jupiter has covered with 
 its branches. On the threshold of the chasm, he im- 
 molates a black sheep which he offers as a sacrifice to 
 powerful Cybele. Then, he burns the thuja and the 
 cypress in honor of Erebus and of the divinities of the 
 dark shores. Suddenly there arises a voice which over- 
 throws the subterranean echoes; it is the sacred voice of 
 the goddess! 
 
 The nymphs of the earth who preside over the met- 
 als, were occupied at that moment in uniting liquid 
 sulphur with the silvered wave of mercury, a marvelous 
 
 Page Thirty-eight 
 
amalgam which, hardened by the bath, transforms itself 
 into pure gold. All ready, for this divine work, un- 
 known to mortals, and they alloyed a hundred rays of 
 flame and a hundred molecules of burnt air with two 
 hundred germs borrowed either from the bowels of the 
 earth or the bosom of the waters. When the voice of 
 Cybele resounded, seized by a religious alarm, they sus- 
 pended all their labors, and one of them, detached her- 
 self from her companions, and approached at once the 
 entrance to the cavern. It is the nymph Lipara to whom 
 is confided, in the dark empire, the task of purifying by 
 fire, gold, silver and the sacred bitumens. Addressing 
 Ilceus: "I know," she told him, "thy name and thy mis- 
 fortunes; I know the design that brings thee here. Be 
 without fear. It is not in vain that a goddess beloved 
 by us has promised thee our help. The remedy that 
 thou seekest is here. Come, follow me in these dark 
 paths which lead to our domain; the nymph who is 
 speaking to thee will guide thy footsteps." At these 
 words she crossed the threshold of the cavern. Ilceus 
 followed her without hesitation. What a picture then 
 unrolled itself to his eyes! There were here gaping gulfs, 
 there some subterranean rivers, at other places bottomless 
 abysms filled by eternal night. "We are here," 
 says Lipara, "in the empire of Earth. Several divinities 
 have divided among themselves these darksome places. 
 Under our feet extends the kingdom of Proserpine; on 
 its arches are the sacred springs from which pour the 
 rivers which then roll their thundering waves to the sea. 
 
 Page Thirty-nine 
 
For us, this is our domain. My sister and I make bronze, 
 silver and gold, it is 1 who guide through the torn sides 
 of this mountain the threads of sulphur whose beneficent 
 vapor mingles itself with the water of thy sweet friend, 
 Caliirhoe." However, they continue their walk in the 
 midst of the darkness, and soon they begin to hear the 
 muffled sounds of the subterranean braziers, the crack- 
 ling of flames excited by the sulphur and the shaking of 
 the bronze which is slowly boiling. "We now approach," 
 continued the nymph, "where Cybele brings forth those 
 metals which so markedly excite the envy of mortals. 
 A thousand goddesses, daughters of the earth and of 
 night, inhabit these dark homes and there consecrate 
 themselves to tasks without number. The one distributes 
 the waters; others dig the earth to gather the sparse 
 germs of flame and of fire; others, finally compose the 
 metallic alloys, which they subsequently pour into molds 
 or which they harden by tempering. The narrow path 
 which thou seest on our left leads to the arsenals of the 
 Cyclops of Etna, who are incessantly hammering iron on 
 the resounding anvils and whose forges belch far away 
 on the earth whirlwinds of smoke. Finally this other 
 road to the right will lead us to the sacred river whose 
 metallic waves carry quicksilver and will furnish thee 
 the remedy, the only remedy that is good for thy disease." 
 They then entered the avenue whose arches gar- 
 nished with tutty are traversed by threads of gold and of 
 sulphur of scintillating reflections. Then they arrive at 
 the banks of a river with silvery waves. "Ilceus," says 
 the nymph, "thou hast finally reached the end of thy 
 
 Page Forty 
 
troubles. When that sacred stream shall have passed 
 over thy body three times, thou shalt be delivered of thy 
 disease and its impure poison." At these words, she 
 plunges her virgin hands into the river; three times she 
 takes out of it the liquid metal and three times she 
 spreads it on the limbs of Ilceus. O prodigy! It is done! 
 The disease at once disappears, and his hideous covering, 
 on contact with this glowing flood, dissolves and dis- 
 appears in a moment! 
 
 "Now leave," continued Lipara, "go find the day, 
 the pure sky and the fortunate regions that the sun lights. 
 But let thy first care be to offer a sacrifice to Diana, to 
 the gods of these gloomy places and to the goddess who 
 has saved thy days." 
 
 She has spoken and resumes the road to the cavern. 
 Ilceus follows her, intoxicated with gratitude and joy; he 
 soon passes the threshold of the darksome empire and 
 sees again the radiant clearness of day. 
 
 Renown immediately seized this prodigy, and soon 
 the sublime virtues of mercury were known throughout 
 the universe. 
 
 At the beginning, mercury was employed associated 
 with lard; later it was combined with the turpentine of 
 Epirus and with the resin of the majestic birch. Certain 
 physicians today combine it with horse fat or bear's 
 grease, or bdellium and with the juice of cedar, others 
 with myrrh, with male incense, with mibium and with 
 burning sulphur. For my part, I prefer to alloy it with 
 a mixture of black hellebore, orris root, galbanum, asa- 
 fetida, oil of mastic, and oil of native sulphur. 
 
 Page Forty-oae 
 
Patients, a truce to the disgust which may be caused 
 by this remedy! For if it is disgusting, the disease is 
 still more so. Besides, your cure is at this price. So, 
 without hesitation, spread this mixture on your body 
 and cover with it your entire skin, with the exception of 
 the head and of the precordial region. Then, carefully 
 wrap yourself in wool and tow; then get into bed, load 
 yourself with bed covering and thus await until a sweat 
 bathes your limbs with an impure dew. Ten days in 
 succession renew this treatment, for ten entire days you 
 are to undergo this cruel trial whose beneficial effect will 
 not cause you to wait. 
 
 As a matter of fact, very soon an infallible presage 
 will announce to you the hour of your freedom. Very 
 soon you will feel the ferments of the disease dissolve 
 themselves in your mouth in a disgusting flow of saliva, 
 and you will see the virus, even the virus, evacuate itself 
 at your feet in rivers of saliva. 
 
 If, during the course of this treatment, small ulcers 
 develop in your mouth, have a care to fight them with 
 gargles of milk or by a decoction of pomegranate privet. 
 This treatment being completed, you may then, without 
 fear, recall Bacchus to your table and enjoy in full liberty 
 the generous nectars of Phetia, of Falernum and of Chios. 
 
 The disease thus subdued, a last and very simple 
 matter remains for you to carry out in order to complete 
 your victorious work. It is that of purifying your body 
 of the last taints by means of ablutions, for which laven- 
 der, marjaram, rosemary, verbena and clary offer you 
 their perfumed odors. 
 
 Page Fotty-two 
 
SYPHILIDIS liber Tertius 
 
 O muse, beyond the columns of Hercules a new world 
 claims thee. Listen to those murmuring waves which 
 call thee to distant shores. Go, take thy impulse and 
 celebrate in verses the foreign tree which assuages our 
 pains and places a limit to our affliction. And thou, 
 celestial Urania, put on thy medical purple, show to the 
 peoples of Italy thy brow crowned with the August 
 branches of Guaiac, and relate the wonderful prodigies 
 of which our century is a witness. 
 
 Ah! heroic century, may some day an illustrious 
 poet consecrate the accents of his lyre to thee ! Let him 
 then narrate this inspired singer of heroes and of glory, 
 how our intrepid fleets set out to conquer another conti- 
 nent beyond the unknown seas ! Let him sing of those 
 new worlds recently discovered, their cities, their rivers, 
 their different peoples, their strange customs, their skies 
 bespangled with glittering pleiades ! Let him relate those 
 combats, those memorable battles which subjected to our 
 laws a continent until then ignored ! Let him especially 
 note for the admiration of future centuries that frail bark 
 which alone, plows with its bold prow the immensity of 
 the seas ! Happy the favorite of Apollo who will be 
 able to worthily limn such marvels ! My Muse would not 
 dare to aspire to such a brilliant task; more modest, she 
 will do naught but here celebrate a sacred tree; she will 
 recite its virtues, she will recount how it was discovered 
 and how it was imported among us from a distant shore. 
 
 Page Forty-three 
 
Under the ardent fires of Cancer, in the bosom of an 
 immense sea in which the chariot of Phebus plunges at 
 the close of day, an island extends, narrow and long, 
 which the Spanish navigators were the first to land upon 
 and in remembrance of their country they called His- 
 paniola. This land is sown with gold; but that which 
 makes a greater wealth for it than gold, is the precious 
 tree to which natives of the country have given the name 
 of Guaiac. 
 
 Guaiac has a stem that is slender and cylindrical. 
 Its branches which are broadly spread are loaded with 
 a thick foliage that is always green, its fruit consists of 
 small, numerous berries, which are astringent to the taste. 
 
 Its wood has the hardness of iron; under heat it ex- 
 udes a sticky resin; when cut it is agreeably shaded in 
 color; green and shining like laurel just below the bark, 
 it takes on a little deeper the pale gray color of box, and 
 becomes darker up to black near its central portions, in 
 such fashion as to recall the tints of both ebony and of 
 walnut. Suppose that to these different colors red is 
 added, the scarf of Iris would not be more richly streaked. 
 
 The natives devote an extreme amount of care to the 
 culture of this tree. They force themselves to multiply 
 it; they cover their highlands and lowlands with it. They 
 cherish it, and they worship it as the equal of a saving 
 god. And it is not without reason, for it alone furnishes 
 a remedy against the implacable scourge which the heaven- 
 ly ire permanently maintains among them. 
 
 This remedy is thus prepared by them: A stout 
 branch is detached from the tree, it is freed of its bark, 
 
 Page Forty-four 
 
crushed and scraped; the different fragments thus obtained 
 are first left in water to digest for the length of one day 
 and one night, then it is subjected to the action of fire. 
 Care is taken to manage the cooking of the mixture with 
 economy, in such manner as to avoid a hard ebullition 
 and so as not to lose any part of the scum, a topic that 
 may be usefully employed for ulcers and abscesses. The 
 liquid is evaporated in this manner until reduced to one- 
 half and then carefully recovered. The solid residue is 
 then again taken up with water, shaken up with honey 
 and again cooked with a care that is entirely similar. 
 
 Of these two decoctions that are successively made 
 the first is given as a remedy in the dose of two glassfuls 
 daily, of which one is to be taken at the rising of Aurora, 
 and the other at the time that twilight begins to spread 
 its shadows on Olympus. The second comprises the 
 only drink which the national rite and the religious law 
 of the country permit patients to use at their meals. The 
 use of the one and of the other must equal in duration 
 the length of time that it takes a star to go through its 
 course to rejoin the chariot of the Sun. 
 
 During the whole course of this treatment, the 
 patients are closely confined in a tightly closed apart- 
 ment, sheltered from the cold, from air and from the 
 inimical draft of the winds. They limit themselves to 
 the most austere diet, to the most rigid fasting, taking no 
 food, except a quantity such as is indispensable to keep 
 up the functions and preserve life. However, they easily 
 support this diet, thanks to the sacred drinks which sus- 
 tain them equally like a celestial ambrosia and furnish to 
 
 Page Forty -fr»e 
 
their famished bodies the occult principles of resistance 
 and of nutrition. After each dose of the remedy, they 
 take care to lie in bed for two hours, in order to permit 
 the divine nectar to penetrate their organs and to purify 
 them by salutary sweats. 
 
 And, Diana, O Prodigy, has not completed her 
 career which the action of the remedy already reveals. 
 It is an act of evil ! The pustules dry, the ulcers heal, 
 the pains disappear, and the flower of youth is born 
 again with the return of health. 
 
 I will tell how a divine hand pointed out this remedy 
 to the natives of the new world, and how the helpful 
 Destinies imported it among us. 
 
 Departed from the shores of Spain in search of 
 another world, an intrepid flotilla sailed on far away seas 
 which are present at the setting of the Sun. Uncertain 
 of their way, they proceeded in a haphazard way on 
 unknown waves. About them crowded innumerable 
 Nereids. Nymphs of those unexplored seas, they had 
 all left their damp homes to come and look upon those 
 winged vessels, which, their sails to the wind, appeared 
 to them to fly upon the deep. 
 
 It was night. From the serene vault of the firma- 
 ment the moon spread its pure rays on the undulated 
 surface of the seas. Raising his suppliant looks to that 
 star, the hero who commanded the fleet, he whom the 
 Destinies had chosen for the grand work which is pre- 
 paring itself, implored the daughter of Latona in these 
 terms: "O Phebe, queen of night, sovereign of these 
 
 Page Fotty-«ix 
 
waves, twice hast thou turned thy silvery crescent to us, 
 twice hast thou filled thy course, and nothing yet offers 
 itself to us but the immensity of the waves. Land flees 
 before us. For our grace, cause some shore to appear 
 at the horizon, and direct us, O, goddess, to those worlds 
 that we seek for so long !" 
 
 Diana heard the prayer; she at once came down 
 from the sky, borrows the features of the Nereids 
 Cynothos and Clotho, then, mingling with the group of 
 nymphs that surrounded the fleet, she answered the hero 
 in these words : "Courage, beloved son, courage I The 
 days that will shine shall not be done without land ap- 
 pearing before thine eyes, without a port to shelter thy 
 vessels. But do not stop at the first shore that thou shalt 
 meet. It is further on that the Destinies call thee. Be- 
 yond that these seas hold a large island of the name of 
 Ophir; there, only must thou limit thy course and found 
 the capital of thy empire !" 
 
 She had spoken, and touched the ship with her hand, 
 which, pushed by favoring winds, lightly passed over the 
 azure of the waves. 
 
 The chariot of Phebus had scarcely emerged from 
 the waves when a foggy point appeared at the horizon ; 
 it is land S Soon, as a fact, the squadron came in view 
 of a shore, of the shore so long desired. It lands, it salutes 
 this hospitable soil, and returns to heaven a just tribute 
 of actions and of thanks. Then the crew seeks in repose 
 new strength for the fatigues that are to come. 
 
 Page Forty-seven 
 
Four days pass thus. A mild breeze arises and fills 
 the sails. The squadron at once puts to sea with en- 
 thusiasm. It left behind it the island of Anthylie, which 
 floats at the will of the waves. Hagie, Ammerie, the 
 cursed land of the Cannibals, and Gyana with its green 
 shores, and then it noticed an archipelago which traces 
 above the waters escarped heights. Of the innumerable 
 isles which compose it, there is one that is crowned by 
 luxuriant forests and which pours into the sea a large 
 river whose bed is covered with gold. Pure rivulets 
 cross it, and cool shades make charming a stay. Se- 
 duced by so many attractions, the squadron is halted. 
 The sailors landed on this enchanting shore with trans- 
 ports of joy. Their first care was to offer a sacrifice to 
 the gods of this place and to the Genius of the river 
 which enriches the ocean with the riches of its waves. 
 They then prepared their table on the carpet of grass, 
 and, a cup in the hand, celebrated this happy day. Some 
 next went out in search of discoveries, impatient of 
 knowing if this land had inhabitants; others went to con- 
 template the river with scintillating waves and gather the 
 scales of gold with which its bed is sown. 
 
 Innocent guests of this country, birds with red bills, 
 and azure plumage, flew at this moment in the thick 
 shades which bordered the banks. The sailors perceived 
 this winged assemblage; they at once seized their arque- 
 buses, rival arms to the thunder, terrible arms whose secret 
 Vulcan revealed to the Teutons, the day that it pleased 
 him to endow mortals with the bolts of Jupiter. Each 
 one chose and adjusted his victim. It is done, the burn- 
 
 Page Forty-eight 
 
ing wicks fire the powder, a murderous mixture of sulphur, 
 of nitre and of willow charcoal; the lightning flashes, the 
 shot occurs, the balls whistle in the air, and the ground 
 is covered with dead bodies ! The sky at the same 
 moment is lighted up by thousands of fires, lightnings plow 
 the clouds and shakes, by its angry claps, the shore, the 
 forest and even down to the deep caves of the sea. 
 Terrified, those of the birds who have escaped the car- 
 nage take refuge upon the heights of the rocks, or ask for 
 refuge from the darkest caves. But one of them, O 
 prodigy, stops upon a pointed peak and offers these 
 sinister prophecies : "Cursed strangers, your sacrehgious 
 hand has struck the birds of the Sun. Woe be unto 
 you ! Learn from me the punishment with which Apollo 
 will visit your crime. If favorable winds have brought 
 you to the banks of Ophir, which you sought for such a 
 long time, it is only at the price of thousands of disasters 
 and of thousands of diseases that it will be given to you 
 to reach this other world from which you hope to steal 
 its ancient liberty. All the scourges of the earth and of 
 the waves will be let loose upon your heads. War will 
 decimate you; these waves will engulf your squadrons; 
 this shore will be covered with your remains, and very 
 few among you will see the sky of your native land ! 
 Europe will refuse you all help, and whilst Discord will 
 turn against you your own arms, this land will bring forth 
 giants to crush you. In fine, an unknown pestilence will 
 spread upon you its noisome, tainted marks, until the day 
 when, suppliants, you will come here and implore pardon 
 
 Pags Forty-nine 
 
for your sacrilege and ask from this forest a remedy for 
 your sufferings !" — He had spoken, and, uttering a terrible 
 whistle, disappeared in the depths of the woods. 
 
 Upon hearing this fatal prophecy the Spaniards stood 
 pale with terror and chilled with fear. In order to ap- 
 pease the celestial anger, they hurried to offer expiatory 
 sacrifices to the Sun, to the sacred birds, and to the 
 nymphs of the forest. They implored their pardon; 
 they tried all means to bend by their prayers the gods of 
 Ophir and the Genius of the sacred river. 
 
 Nevertheless, men of a race that was unknown sud- 
 denly emerged from the adjacent woods. Their body 
 was as black as their hair; their chest was naked; their 
 forehead, as a sign of peace, was bound with foliage. 
 They advance toward the sea; they consider with stupe- 
 faction the gigantic sides of the vessels, the clothing and 
 the arms of the soldiers; they do not seem to be able to 
 satisfy their eyes with the spectacle of so many marvels. 
 They humbly prostrate themselves before the Spaniards, 
 whom they take for the gods or messengers of the sky, 
 and presenting to their chief, as an offering, some gold, 
 wheat, honey and fruits, they receive in return clothing, 
 wine and divers presents. The wine especially seemed 
 to surprise and please them to ecstacy just as celestial 
 ambrosia would a mortal admitted to the table of the 
 gods. 
 
 Tokens of peace are exchanged, and a reciprocal 
 confidence did not take long to be established. The 
 chiefs of the two nations then advanced to meet one 
 another on the river bank. The king of the natives car- 
 
 Page Fifty 
 
ried in his belt a light veil bordered with emeralds having 
 green reflections; his right hand is armed with a sharp 
 javelin and his left with the threatening skin of a dragon. 
 The admiral is dressed in a tunic woven with gold, on 
 which sparkle gleaming arms; his head is covered with a 
 bronze casque surmounted by a brilliant plume; upon his 
 shoulders shines a collar of gold; a Toledo blade hangs 
 at his side. One and the other, as a sign of peace, ex- 
 change a fraternal embrace. The union between the 
 two people is then complete ; it is soon cemented by a 
 reciprocal hospitality, and, be it aboard the Spanish ves- 
 sels, or on land in the cottages of the natives, feasts and 
 joyous banquets make sacred this happy alliance. 
 
 It was then the time when the inhabitants of the 
 distant shores were accustomed to offer their annual 
 sacrifices to the vengeful Sun. The entire population of 
 Ophir, whom the Spaniards joined met for this solemnity 
 in a dark valley which was shaded by a thick crown of 
 woods and was traversed by green streamlets. There, 
 in the center of the assemblage, a numerous group existed, 
 diversely composed of men of all ages and ranks of 
 women, of children and of old people. Horrible spec- 
 tacle ! All the unfortunates who form this group carry 
 upon their visages the marks of suffering; a horrible lep- 
 rosy soils their body; their flesh is eaten by hideous 
 ulcers ! 
 
 Notwithstanding, a priest all attired in white advances 
 towards these poor victims. He shakes over their heads 
 a branch of guaiac from which a bright liqiid flows, then 
 with his own hand he sacrifices a young bull with a snow- 
 
 Page Fifty -one 
 
white coat ; he gathers its blood in a sacred dish and 
 pours it upon a shepherd kneeling at the altar. He then 
 addresses a solemn hymn to the Sun, and the entire as- 
 semblage responds to his sacred words. Boars, and ewes 
 are then immolated and their entrails, roasted at once, 
 are distributed to those who are present. 
 
 The Spaniards gazed upon these strange ceremonies 
 with wonder; they trembled with fear at the sight of the 
 hideous ravages of a disease that was unknown to them. 
 Their leader remained silent for a long time as if in a 
 dream, and then cried out: "Ah, here it is: doubtless, 
 this is the scourge with which the bird of Apollo, 
 threatened us, O eternal gods, pity, pity us!" Then ad- 
 dressing the King of the natives (for already the two 
 peoples had learned to understand one another): "What 
 are" said he, "the religious rites? Who are those un- 
 fortunates gathered together in this place? Who is the 
 shepherd upon whom your sacrificer has spread the blood 
 of the victim? " 
 
 "Valiant stranger", answered the King, "thou hast 
 witnessed our annual sacrifice in honor of the Sun. Its 
 origin is very ancient. And since thou hast asked to 
 know it, I will satisfy thy wish: I will tell thee what 
 series of misfortunes has struck us, and how this scourge 
 which now desolates us was bora in our midst." 
 
 "An issue of Atlas, of Atlas our father, whose name 
 no doubt is not unknown to thee, our nation lived for a 
 long time happily and cherished of the sky, as long as it 
 honored the gods and remained faithful to their worship. 
 
 Page Fifty-two 
 
But a time came, alas! in which corruption and im- 
 piety slipped in among us, in which the sacred altars of 
 our fathers were devoted to contempt. The punishment 
 of such a crime did not take time to come, for from that 
 period dates for us a series of misfortunes which I would 
 be unable to recite. It was, at first, that famous island 
 to which Atlas had given his name, that queen of the 
 seas, Atlantic, that a fearful cataclysm shook to its very 
 foundations, and which threw itself in the bosom of those 
 waves which were formerly subject to its empire. Then 
 the anger of heaven turned itself against our flocks, and 
 we saw disappear to the last young of this giant animal 
 of which nothing has survived among us but a memory. 
 As a result, we have nothing to offer to our gods but the 
 blood of foreign victims, born under a sky which is not 
 ours. Later on yet, the anger of the gods and the ven- 
 geance of Apollo unchained upon us the terrible scourge 
 of which thou hast seen the ravages. This disease has 
 spread itself in all our cities, and very few among us es- 
 cape its cruel attacks. It is for the purpose of conjuring 
 him and to propitiate him that our fathers established 
 these expiatory sacrifices, of whose origin it remains for 
 me to tell thee". 
 
 According to an ancient tradition, even here, on the 
 banks of this river, a shepherd of the name of Syphilus 
 watched innumerable flocks of King Alcithous. It was 
 the period of the Solstice, and Sirius threw the fire of 
 his rays on these fields. A torrid heat burned the earth; 
 the forests had no shade, the breeze was no longer cool. 
 Syphilus saw his animals dying; seized with indignation, 
 
 Page Fifty- ihree 
 
exasperated by his own sufferings, he threw to Sirius a 
 threatening look and thus addressed the god: 'What! 
 we honor thee as the father and the creator of all things, 
 we erect to thee altars, we offer to thee our incense, we 
 sacrifice to thee victims without number, and this is our 
 reward, this is the care that thou takest of the flocks of 
 my King! Ah! it is jealousy without doubt that is de- 
 vouring thee! Thou who hast in the heavens, it is said 
 but one bull, but one ram, with a hectic dog to watch 
 this great drove, thou hast not borne in view without 
 envy our thousands of cattle, our thousands of sheep with 
 the white fleece. Fool that 1 am. It is not to thee, it 
 is to Alcithous that I should render divine honors. If 
 that great King commands so many peoples, if so many 
 seas obey his laws, it is because, most assuredly, his 
 power is greater than thine and that of all the other gods. 
 He, at least, will know how to guard our flocks, to give 
 them cool shelter, and to furnish them with green shades' ". 
 "He had spoken, and without waiting he erected an 
 altar on the neighboring mountain; he then rendered di- 
 vine honors to Alcithous. Shepherds and plowmen soon 
 follow this impious example; and incense no longer 
 smokes, the blood of victims is no longer poured out in 
 honor of the new god". 
 
 Alcithous received these homages with intoxication. 
 From the top of his throne, in the midst of his assembled 
 peoples, he proclaimed himself the sovereign of the world; 
 he decreed that in future, to him alone were divine hon- 
 ors to be rendered. 'Let the gods', said he, 'divide the 
 
 Page Fifty-four 
 
heayens among them; they have nothing to look after 
 among the things here below ! " 
 
 "But Sirius, whom nothing escapes, Sirius who with 
 one look embraces the universe, could not see without 
 indignation such sacrileges. In his anger, he charges his 
 rays with pestilential poisons and virulent miasms, which 
 simultaneously infect the air, the earth and the waters. 
 At once upon this criminal earth there arises an unknown 
 plague. Syphilus is the first attacked by it, on account 
 of having been the first to profane the sacred altars. A 
 hideous leprosy covers his body; fearful pains torture his 
 limbs and banish sleep from his eyes. Then, this terri- 
 ble disease — known since then among us by the name 
 of Syphilis— does not take long to spread in our entire 
 nation, not even sparing our King himself". 
 
 "Our fathers then, in their alarm, ran to ask the 
 nymph Anerica, who gives the sacred oracles in the 
 woods of Carthese. They ask her the cause of the dis- 
 ease whic'n is afflicting them; they implore of her a 
 remedy for their sufferings". 
 
 ' Impious mortals', answers the nymph, ' you 
 have had the presumption to equal yourselves to the 
 gods, and today you suffer the punishment of your crime. 
 Go, go without loss of time, to implore your pardon of 
 the god whom you have offended; re-erect those altars 
 and offer to him those sacrifices which are his due. Per- 
 haps you may, in this manner, appease his anger. But 
 do not hope to see the end of the scourge that is afflicting 
 you. This disease shall be eternal, and whosoever 
 shall be bora on this earth will suffer from its attacks; 
 
 Page Fifty-five 
 
Apollo has sworn it by the Styx and by immutable Des- 
 tiny. Here at all events, is how you may obtain relief 
 to your sufferings. Choose in your flocks a white heifer 
 and a black one; sacrifice the first to Juno and the sec- 
 ond to Cybele. Juno will scatter in the air propitious 
 germs which, received and fecundated in the bosom of 
 Cybele, produce a tree with green branches. That tree 
 is your savior'". 
 
 "Thus spoke the nymph, whose voice shook the 
 cave and the neighboring wood. A chill of terror oc- 
 curred at this sinister prophecy. Nevertheless, the com- 
 mands of the nymph were obeyed; the altars were re- 
 erected; two heifers were sacrificed, the white one and 
 the other black, in honor of Juno and of Cybele". 
 
 "Then suddenly, O unheard prodigy and true pro- 
 digy (I attest for it the gods and the names of our 
 fathers), an unknown tree arises from the bosom of the 
 earth, spreads its branches and develops its luxuriant 
 crown of foliage. It is from the fruitful trunk of this 
 tree that the neighboring forest was born". 
 
 "Our high priest at once prescribes new sacrifices in 
 honor of Apollo. He insists upon an expiatory victim, 
 and fate chooses Syphiius to pay with his life for the 
 crime of the nation". 
 
 "The sacrifice is being prepared. Already the rib- 
 bons and the sacred cakes are deposited on the altar ; 
 already the iron threatens the breast of the victim, when 
 all at once Juno and Sirius, whose anger has been ap- 
 peased, substitute for the shepherd Syphiius a young 
 
 Page Fifty-»ix 
 
bull who receives the fatal blow and alone pays with the 
 price of his blood the outrage done to the gods". 
 
 "It is to preserve the memory of these memorable 
 events that our fathers instituted the religious rites which 
 you have just witnessed and which are renewed each 
 year among us. A fictitious victim, this shepherd whom 
 you see at the foot of the altar recalls to us the sacrilege 
 of Syphilus. These unfortunates are those of our people 
 whom the anger of the gods has struck and who cruelly 
 expiate the faults of our father. Our high priest tries 
 to call down on them the pity of heaven and appease 
 the anger of Apollo by his prayers. Purified by these 
 pious sacrifices, they soon regain their homes, loaded 
 with the sacred branches which are to deliver them from 
 this horrible disease". 
 
 In this manner mutual relations were thus completed, 
 cementing the union of these two peoples, formerly 
 strangers to one another, when suddenly a gruesome 
 rumor spread, brought by ships of the squadron which 
 came back from the old world after having twice crossed 
 the immensity of the seas. O pain, O cruel and im- 
 penetrable destiny! The scourge which desolates Ophir, 
 has, it is said, just burst forth in Europe. 
 
 It rages there with fury, sowing fear everywhere and 
 no remedy can prevent its ravages. This is not all ! 
 Here soon the same disease is developed aboard of the 
 fleet. Numbers of sailors are attacked by it and see 
 their bodies covered with hideous taints. 
 
 In their affliction, the Spaniards recalling the ill- 
 omened oracle of the bird of Apollo, predicting to them 
 that the day would come when they would implore for 
 
 Page Fifty-seven 
 
their pardon and their safety the forest made bloody by 
 their arms. Without more hesitation, they offered a 
 sacrifice to the Sun and to the Nymphs of that country. 
 Then they went to pluck in the forest branches of the 
 sacred wood, and prepared, according to the native rite, 
 the salutary brew which is to purify them. Thinking of 
 the distress of their companions, they load their ships 
 with similar branches, in the hope that this precious 
 remedy will preserve its qualities under a foreign sky. 
 They finally leave. Propitious winds fill their sails; 
 Apollo himself directs their course. 
 
 Divine guaiac, it was Spain that had the happiness 
 of first receiving on our continent and of being the first 
 to know thy marvelous virtues. Later the Gauls and 
 the Germans, Scythia and Latium implored thy help. 
 Salutations to thee, savior tree with the luxuriant trunk, 
 with the generous sap ! We salute thee, the pride of the 
 New World! Ah! what would have been thy glory, if 
 propitious Destinies had caused thee to be born in this 
 land, the natal place of poets and of the gods! A 
 stranger among us, mayest thou at least owe some part 
 of thy honors to these verses as honors which are thy 
 due ! Without doubt my Muse does not dare to aspire 
 to spread the noise of thy marvels from the confines of 
 Bactria to the ice- bergs of the pole or to the burning 
 sands of Ethiopia; but she will at least publish thy sub- 
 lime virtues among the peoples of Latium, in the fields 
 of the Adigos and on the flowery banks of the Benacus; 
 perhaps even it will carry thy name to the ears of Bembo, 
 on the banks of the Tiber, and this will be for her the 
 dearest reward for her labors. 
 
 Pane Fifty-eight