I have in my former Letters, to Dr. DOUGLASS, sufficiently I think proved that the _first_ Degree of the _Venereal Disease_ was very common among us some hundreds of Years before it is commonly said to have been known in _Europe_; there will be no Reason for any body to conceive we were at that time in any measure Strangers to it, when it came to be confirmed; more especially, when we consider the Methods of Treatment in those Times, which consisting principally in topical Applications, many of their Patients could not possibly escape having it confirmed on them. Now when it was in this confirmed State, the Writers of those early times looked upon it as an _entirely new_ Disease, and not a Consequent of any Evil before contracted, because they were not apprised, that the _first_ Symptoms being removed, and the Disease to Appearance cured, it should afterwards discover it self in such a manner, as should not seem to have the least Analogy with the Symptoms, that first attack’d a part which had been for a considerable time free from any Misfortune. But because the Symptoms are the only true Characteristicks, whereby we are infallibly able to know one Disease from another, it may be expected, that I produce sufficient Authorities to demonstrate they were all of them known and described by ancient Physical and Chirurgical Writers, just as they appear to be in the _Venereal Disease_ at this Day, if I would prove that _Disease_ to be of a much more ancient Date, than is generally thought; and if I do this, I cannot but think it will be satisfactory, since we can have no other way of coming to a Knowledge of any one Distemper, than by its Symptoms. The Method of laying down the exact Succession of them, will be impossible to be reduced to any certain and infallible Rule, there being so great a Variety of Causes, that obstruct such a Regularity; for which Reason, I shall take notice of them in such Order as they most generally appear, which was upon no account to be expected from our antient Writers, insomuch as they mention every particular Symptom by it self, not knowing but that they were independent of each other, and that each of them was a distinct Disease. However, the proving these Symptoms were in being in these _early_ times, will be as strong an Argument to prove the Antiquity of this Distemper, as if they had been register’d in the most exact Order of Succession, because we shall, upon the strictest Examination, find they are peculiar to the _Venereal Malady_ only. I have, I hope, sufficiently made it appear in my former Letter, that the _first Degree_ of this _Disease_ was anciently known among us by the name of _Brening_, or _Burning_; and that it was the same Thing with what we now call a _Clap_, The Symptoms, which are usually its Concomitants, are the _Phymosis_, and _Parahphymosis_, both which are accurately described, and proper Remedies, for them set down by _John Arden_, Esq; in another Manuscript of his, curiously written upon Vellum, and beautifully illuminated. The imprudent Method of Cure of this _first Degree_ of the _Venereal Malady_, is sometimes attended with a Caruncle in the _Urethra_, which was a Disease very common among us anciently: For not to mention other _early_ writers, _Arden_ gives us the Case of a certain Rector, who had such a _Substance_, like a Wart, growing in the _Penis_, which he says _frequently happens_, and of another which had such an _Excrescence_ as big as a _small Strawberry_, which (says he) _proceeded from the corrupted Matter remaining in the_ Urethra. And indeed there is not any Symptom of the _Venereal Disease_, that I find so often mentioned as this of the _Caruncle_, insomuch that it seems to have been more common in those _early Times_, than at _this Day_. But this must be certainly owing to the smooth and oily Remedies they were continually injecting, which, by their relaxing and softning the Fibres of the Part, must necessarily dispose the Contexture of small Blood Vessels, lodged at the bottom of the little Ulcerations, to fill with nutritious Juices, and to extend themselves so, as to form such fungous Excrescences; and so solicitous were they for removing these Inconveniences, that they made use of several Ways by Corrosives and other Methods, to accomplish this end; and a very early Writer among us, has given a very methodical and curious Tract on this Subject, wherein he recommends the removing them by the _medicated-Candle_, which we use at this Day, and lays down divers other Instructions, in relation to it, which makes it probably the best Discourse on this Subject, that was ever yet written.