NOTES 337

the malady, and he gives an even more detailed account of the
method, amounting to a ritual, of preparing guaiac. 'The cure
involved a complicated treatment, absolute rest for thirty days in
& room from which all fresh air was rigorously excluded, sweating,
fasting, frictions and purgations, and avoidance of all chill. The
less you eat the quicker the cure. . . . Abstain from bathing, wine
etc., do not work, avoid all cares. Hutten's work, in twenty—six
chapters, was reprinted in 1524 by the same press, and is said to
have done most to spread the popularity of guaiac. It was trans—
lated into English by Thomas Paynell in 1533. Fuchs of Limburg
published at Paris, in 1541, his Morbi Hispani£ol . . . curand«i
per ligni Indicti quod Guayacum vulgo dicitur decoctum exqwisitissi—
mum methodus. Fraceastorius therefore, in the following pages,
was in the fashion set by other syphiliographers. Gwaiacum
officinale (Rutacea) is from a tree, hyacus or huyacus, found in the
Antilles, on the north eoast of South America, etc. 'The wood is
greenish brown, hard, and heavier than water; it contains a resin
of the same color, which since the 16th cent. has been used for
syphilis etc. There was a tradition, followed by Fracastorius, that
the Spanish who were with Columbus first brought to Europe the
sacred wood, /gnum sanctum. By the natives of San Domingo
'the tree was called QGuaican.

:55 The island Beata, 'Blessed', is off the S. W. coast of Hayti.

ïs9 In Sympathy, Ch. 6, discussing the action and reaction of
contrary qualities, he says that he follows the philosophers in assign—
ing 8 degrees to the qualities heat, co!ld, moisture, dryness; the
number of the degree determines the potency of any quality against
its contrary; the highest degree, the eighth, opposes all the degrees
of its contrary; but the seventh degree opposes only those degrees
that are higher than number one, and so on. He wishes to show
that ^nature has ordered that every degree does not oppose every
degree of its opposite but only certain ones, to the end that mista
fieri et conflari possent^.  The potency of every element is measured
by the degree of its contrariety. He devotes five pages to this
theme and to the difficulties that arise. Note that Burton says
of senna, calet ordine secundo, siccat primo.

160 For the inferior potency of mere dryness, see p. 193.

i6: For this precaution against fresh air, always carefully excluded
during the earlier period of the guaiac cure, see note 157. *

:6: By 'earthy' he means cold and dry, coldness and dryness being
the 'essential qualities' of earth.

ï6; It is hard to say what Fracastorius means precisely by the
words eitron and limon, i. e. when he means the citron, the lemon
or the lime.  *Citron' is used in modern French for all three.  Limon
is not used in classical Latin for a fruit.

164 In elassical Latin faeda is the pitch—pine.

:6s For China root see Note 6S8.

166 For personalia see Note 83.