Of gods and leeches: treatment of priapism in the nineteenth century

Priapism is defined as a prolonged erection in the absence of sexual desire. The name derives from the Greek god Priapus who had an erect penis very much associated with sexual desire (Figure 1). It is written that his parents were Zeus and Aphrodite. When Hera, the wife of Zeus, heard of the pregnancy she cursed the child, such that, when the boy was born with oversized genitals, he was rejected by Aphrodite. The boy was brought up by shepherds who noticed that wherever they took him flowers would bloom and animals would copulate furiously. He thus became a god of fertility. I have looked for references to priapism in works from the nineteenth century—a time when medicine began to benefit from scientific method and the formal recording of experience.1 The Wellcome Trust’s (London) History of