Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction Part 13

[121] A large province of the Deccan, said to have been famous, in ancient times, for its diamond mines.

[122] That Coryphaeus of voluptuaries, George IV., so highly appreciated this quality in truffles, that his Ministers at the courts of Turin, Naples, Florence, &c., were specially instructed to forward by a state messenger to the Royal Kitchen any of those fungi that might be found superior in size, delicacy or flavour.

[123] Physiologie du Gout, par Brillat Savarin, Paris, 1859.

[124] Martial, Epigram, lib. xiii. epig. 34.

[125] Ducange, Glossaire.

[126] J. H. Meibomius de flagrorum usu in Re medica et Venerea, Paris, 1792, p. 125.

[127] See Macaroneana, par M. Octave Delepierre, Paris, 1852, p. 3.

[128] Thevet, Portraits des Vies des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres, Vol.

I., p. 13, fol. edit., Paris, 1584.

[129] Hume's Hist. of England, Vol. I., p. 348.

[130] Dissertatio Inauguralis de Ambra, -- iv. p. 36.

[131] Medicamentum quod non solum potenter stimulat, sed vel efftum senem, pro brevi tempore, ad juventutem iterum rest.i.tuit. _Ibid._ -- viii., p. 44.

[132] Nee dans une condition obscure, vouee au libertinage des sa plus tendre jeunesse, autant par gout que par etat, Made. Du Barry ne put offrir a son auguste amant, malgre la fleur de la jeunesse et les brillants appas dont elle etoit encore pourvue, que les restes de la plus vile canaille, de la prost.i.tution." Vie privee des maitresses de Louis XV., p. 153.--"You are no doubt curious to hear an opinion of Madame Du Barri's beauty from the lips of one who has seen her both in her days of prosperity and after her downfall.

She was a person of small, almost diminutive stature, extremely frail and delicate in feature, which saved her from being vulgar; but even from the first, she always wore that peculiarly _fane_ look which she owed to a youth of dissipation, a maturity of unbounded indulgence. At the period of my visit she was about thirty-six years of age, but, from her child-like form and delicacy of countenance, appeared much younger, and her _gambades_ and unrestrained gestures of supreme delight on having, as she said, _quelqu'un a qui parler_, did not seem displaced. Although alone, and evidently not in expectation of visitors, her toilet was brilliant and _recherche_, the result of the necessity of killing time."--"Talleyrand Papers."

[133] Espion de la Cour.

[134] Gazetier Cuira.s.se, ou Anecdotes Scandaleuses de la Cour de France.

[135] In his "_Praxis Medica Admiranda_," wherein he also gives the formula of an electuary _ad excitandum tentiginem nulli secundum_, p, 295, Observ. XCI., as well as a recipe for pills ad _Coitus ignaviam_, CXIII., p. 297.

[136] Encyclopdia Parthensis, Article Cachunde.

[137] See his Premier Traite de l'homme et de son essentielle anatomie, avec les elements et ce qui est en eux, de ses maladies, medicine et absolus remedes, etc., Paris, 1588.

[138] Cent. 2.

[139] See Celius, lib. xiv., cap. 3.

[140] Histoire de Ferdinand et Isabelle, Tom. II., 326.

Paris, 1766.

[141] Biographie Universelle, Art. Wallenstein.

[142] Detested by the Parisians, Dubois was the object of innumerable caricatures, of which the most _sanglante_ was one representing him "a genoux aux pieds d'une fille de joie qui prenait de ce sale ecoulement qui afflige les femmes, tous les mois, pour lui en rougir sa calotte et le faire Cardinal." See Erotika Biblion.

Paris, 1792, p. 52.

[143] Memoires du Cardinal Dubois, vol. I., p. 3.

[144] aelius Tetrabilis, I., Disc. Chap. 32 and 33.

[145] Browne's Travels in Africa, etc., p. 343.

[146] La generation de l'homme, ou tableau de l'amour conjugal. Tom. 1., p. 276.

[147] Ibid., p. 232.

[148] Venette, Generation de l'homme, Tom. I., p. 279.

[149] De cultu hortorum, v. 108.

[150] Moretum, v. 85.

[151] Mag. Nat., Lib. vii.

[152] Mala Bacchica tanta olim in amoribus praevalerunt, ut coronae ex illis statuae Bacchi ponerentur.

[153] Surag radis ad coitum summe facit: _si quis comedat aut infusionem bibat, membrum subite erigitur_.

Leo Afric., Lib, IX., cap. ult., p. 302.

[154] Gomez (Ferdinand) of Ciudad Real, a celebrated physician, born 1388, died 1457.

[155] Mag. Nat. Lib. VII., c. 16.

[156] Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales chap. LXI., p. 360, Burgos, 1578.

[157] Travels in Africa, &c., p. 341.

[158] Lignac. A physical view of man and woman in a state of marriage. Vol. I., p. 190.

[159] Turcae ad Levenzinum contra Comitem Ludovic.u.m Souches pugnantes, opio exaltati turpiter caesi, et octo mille numero occisi, _mentulas rigidas_ tulere. Christen.

Opium Hist.

[160] It was, perhaps, the knowledge of this fact that suggested to La Fontaine the lines:--

"Un muletier a ce jeu Vaut trois rois."

"To play at which game, I'm sure it is clear, Three kings are no match for one muleteer."

[161] Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain. Tom. II., p. 123.

[162] Cabanis, Rapport, &c., Tom. II., p. 89.

[163] Essais philosophiques sur les murs de divers animaux etrangers.

[164] "The care on thee depending Hath fed upon the body of my father, Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold; Other less fine in carat is more precious, Preserving life in _medicine potable_."

_Henry IV._, sec. part, act iv. sc. v.