A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with notes by George G. Babington.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1841
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with notes by George G. Babington. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![here, from the adhesive inflammation having taken place, the urine cannot insinuate itself into the surrounding cellular membrane, so as to produce the consequences mentioned in treating of the way in which Nature endeavours to relieve herself. In such cases we find that upon pressing the abscess externally the matter is squeezed into the urethra, and so out by the glans. It sometimes happens that a catheter can be introduced into the opening of such an ab- scess, by which means it can be washed by injecting something through the catheter, whereby probably it may be sooner healed. It more frequently happens that such abscesses open both inter- nally and externally, discharging themselves both ways. These ulcerations and suppurations, of both kinds, are to be con- sidered as efforts of Nature, or, to speak more physiologically, as a natural consequence arising from such irritation, by which, as the urine cannot pass by the old passage, a new one is made to prevent further mischief. Both these diseases, when they open externally, if not properly treated, often lay the foundation for the complaint commonly called the fistula in perinaeo, which is owing to the bottom of the abscess having a less disposition to heal than the external parts. It may be further supposed, that the urine passing into the abscess by the inner orifice, and making its escape into the external, keeps up a constant irritation in the sore, which in some measure may prevent an union of the sides, and rather dispose them to form themselves into a hard callous substance, the inner surface of which loses the disposition to union, and assumes the nature of an outlet. But it is more than probable, that the cause which prevents these abscesses from healing depends upon their first action often continu- ing in full force; that is, a diseased state of the interna] parts, as will be further illustrated when we shall treat on the fistula in perinaeo. They often heal up at the orifice in the skin, especially if the water has a free passage forwards ; but if the interna] opening is not per- fectly consolidated, some water will insinuate itself into the old sore, become the cause of fresh inflammations and suppurations in the surrounding parts, which frequently open externally in different places, not following the old canal, although they sometimes com- municate with it and form branches, as it were, from the principal trunk. I have seen the scrotum, perinaeum, and inside of the thigh, full of openings, which were the mouths of so many sinuses leading to the first-formed abscess. When the abscess opens only exter- nally, which is seldom the case, it is to be considered as a common abscess. When these inflammations arise from stricture, the difficulty in making water is increased in the time of the inflammation, which is generally so great as to compress the sides of the urethra together for some way; besides, the stricture itself will become tighter from being inflamed. Inflammation in these parts, even when it does not arise from a stricture, brings on a suppression of urine; but in such cases a bougie or catheter can be passed, the latter of which,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21131508_0133.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
