It now becomes important to consider more closely these various views, as well as the reasons advanced for them, and to subject them to examination. But as the result of this examination will cover to some extent the same ground as the formal History, it will be expedient to treat the two as far as possible in connection with one another. By this method it will ipso facto appear how far the individual views are tenable, and how far the grounds alleged in their favour valid. And this is all the more necessary for two reasons, first because by this means a host of repetitions is avoided, secondly because only in this way are such gaps as still remain clearly recognised and made tangible.
All the different views fall, as already stated, into two groups, according as they maintain the antiquity or the modernness of the Venereal Disease. In conformity with this division we must separate our investigation from the outset into two parts, of which Part I is to comprise the Venereal Disease in Antiquity, Part II the Venereal Disease to the end of the XVth. Century. To this will be added further as a Third Part, the History of the Disease down to our own day.
Each of the two earlier Parts will open, in accordance with the views declared above, with a statement and examination of the Authorities.
After that will follow an investigation of the influences that evoked diseases as a consequence of the use or misuse of the Genital organs and are favourable to their genesis, as well as those influences capable of staying, or in the case of diseases already established, modifying their progress. The difficulty of such an investigation is as striking as is its necessity; for on this subject there is an almost total lack of previous Works of any use to consult; and yet it is only by their help we can possibly win a deeper insight into the history of Venereal Disease.
The attitude of medical Science in face of these influences and their consequences will next claim our attention, so far as it is competent to exert a determining and modifying effect on the form and character of the Disease. In this connection it is especially important to determine whether the Physicians correctly diagnosed these diseases for what they are, or generally speaking had any opportunity of doing so.
Having come to a clear understanding, as far as is possible, on all these points, we shall then be in a position to give a genetic exposition of the development of the Disease itself. This will form the conclusion of each separate part, as well as of the whole Work; and then and then only we shall be able to say our task is fulfilled.