History of Monsters. 125

yielded. This was rightly attributed to the air contained throughout the arteries, which was gradually converted into a watery substance. Now, putting aside tumors of the scrotum and testicles—namely hernias, which will be discussed in their proper place—we shall proceed to list the diseases of the extremities.

The fingers of the hands or the toes of the feet are afflicted by hangnails, chilblains, and gout. Gout is a type of arthritis that encompasses not only *podagra* (foot-gout), but also *chiragra* (hand-gout), *homeragra* (shoulder-gout), *cubitagra* (elbow-gout), *gonagra* (knee-gout), and sciatica (*ischias*). Regarding this last condition, Dodonaeus records that a certain architect who suffered from a limp fell headlong from a high tower; so far from receiving any injury from such a great fall, he actually walked perfectly straight from then on. Finally, a new disease called *gemursa* used to arise between the toes in Italy, which, according to Pliny, has since become extinct.

Among the general ailments that affect the entire body, fever holds the primary place. These include ephemeral, humoral, and hectic fevers, to which are later added the quotidian, tertian (both major and minor), quartan, quintan, sextan, and nonan varieties. There is also the menstrual fever, the *sinocha* (continuous fever), and the anniversary fever, which killed the poet Antipater of Sidon. Others include *leypiria*, malignant, pestilential, contagious, and "stigmatic" pestilence, as well as the "spurious" or sweating sickness—a disease common in Germany known as the British sweat, which the Greeks might call *hidropyretos*. There is also "purple fever," so named from the color of the inflamed blood, and finally a fever arising from the "fever-fish." It is reported that in the Natan River on the island of Ceylon, there is a fish which, if caught, immediately ignites a fever that vanishes once the fish is released. Because of this effect, Scaliger named this fish the *febrius*. Among these universal afflictions, the "French disease" is rightly included; although it first affects the genitals, it soon spreads throughout the whole body and plagues the patient in a marvelous manner. One should also mention the new plague of Moravia and other unknown diseases treated by Weyer in his German book titled *On Unknown Diseases*.

Now something must be said about the "breach of unity" (wounds). First, we encounter wounds of any part, whether simple or compound, inflicted by any instrument—be it iron or larger and smaller firearms. These include lead bullets and iron arrowheads left inside the body. Dodonaeus records the case of a certain peasant who was wounded in the back by an arrow during a seditious riot. After the surgeon extracted the shaft and searched in vain for the iron head, it remained inside. To everyone's astonishment, two years later, he passed the iron through his lower parts. The iron had entered near the diaphragm, descended along the intestines, and gradually worked its way out through the anus. There are also unsightly scars to be removed and broken bones to be fused—a task that Nature performs best, as physicians could in no way accomplish it themselves. We preserve here a small tibia bone, perhaps from some quadruped, which had been broken in two places by some accident. Nature fused these fragments together, joining them lengthwise and crosswise, as shown in the following figure, where the consolidated bone is depicted from both the front and back.

A small bone fused by nature, shown from the front and back.