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The author, after pointing out the almost total absence of any literature on the folk-lore of venereal diseases, goes on to discuss the many causes that have been ascribed to them and especially to the sudden appearance of syphilis in Europe, the still more numerous cures that have been recommended for syphilis and gonorrhoea and the endléss variety of slang names by which they have been called.
Among the supposed causes were such things as copulating too often or copulating with a menstruating woman or an animal; interruption of copulation; retention of urine; the action of evil spirits; a dispensation of Providence to encourage chastity; and, of course, the punishment of God for fornication in general.
Among the cures were, besides every kind of animal, vegetable and mineral, from tortoises to tobacco juice, such procedures as sweating, fumigating, using magical inscriptions and smothering with pillows; the transference of the disease from the patient on to a virgin, a very black woman or a donkey; calling upon various appropriate patron saints; and finally laying the penis across the corner of a table and hitting it hard until it bled profusely.
As to nomenclature, a selection from the enormous range of slang names is given, such as 'Covent Garden Ague', 'The Crinkums', 'Ladies' Fever' and 'the marbles', besides the better-known 'clap' and 'pox'.
The author also points out how each country tended to give the name of another country to the disease. Thus the English called it the 'French Pox' and the French called it the 'Mal de Naples', while the Germans give it a Polish name, and the Poles a German one—a nice example of projection-mechanism.
A bibliography of thirty references is appended.