Inaugural Medical Dissertation on Blind and Open Hemorrhoids

A decorative woodcut headpiece consisting of a repeating frieze of stylized floral ornaments, possibly fleur-de-lis, arranged in two rows within a rectangular border.

With JESUS Shining Forth!

It is established that it has been brought about by the singular sagacity of Nature, that she has not only granted to the weaker Sex a place for evacuating in the sense of purging or discharging shameful blood, namely the Uterus, which was given to them among other things for the purgation of the entire body, as says Aretaeus a prominent ancient Greek physician, book 2 on chronic affections, chapter 11; but she has also not denied that benefit to Men, so that their blood, whether abundant or vicious corrupted or diseased, may be evacuated through a hidden place, namely the hemorrhoids; by the benefit of which purgation, those accustomed to it escape innumerable illnesses, and they obtain a very excellent advantage for maintaining Health, as witnessed by Hippocrates the father of medicine, book on humors and daily experience: indeed, this assistance is coated with sugar, which would otherwise be bitter to everyone. Furthermore, it is called by the ancient name Evacuation by HEMORRHOIDS, which, if it does not occur at the proper time, but happens either too profusely, or is suppressed contrary to nature, and the hemorrhoidal veins thereby swell, ache, or become inflamed, infinite miseries are generated in the body. Although not only males, but also women themselves are sometimes subject to these hemorrhoids (as will be shown below), they befall Men most especially, since the female sex is purged more conveniently through that member which makes them female. Since, therefore, we have not long ago made a public attempt concerning a certain female malady, at present we submit this γνῶσιν καὶ ἴασιν knowledge and healing of the masculine affection, including indeed all its differences, following the wisest Old Man Hippocrates, 3. aph. 30., in place of an Inaugural Discourse, by the order and authority of the Most Ample Asclepiadean Order the medical faculty in this Athenaeum University, to public examination as briefly as the measure of time permits. May GOD, three times best and greatest, most clemently favor these attempts, and may He illuminate the darkness of our intellect with the rays of His Holy Spirit