Green’s Dictionary of Slang

brophys, the n.

[joc. nickname for the supposed insects, relations of body lice or crabs, which allegedly carried the disease]

(Irish) venereal disease.

[Ire]L. Redmond Emerald Square 217: Mercurial ointment (Navy Blue Butter) for the treatment of crabs or their more fearful cousins, ‘the Brophys’, who not alone bit a piece out of your balls but ran up your arse to eat it.