A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with notes by George G. Babington.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

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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    The poison much more readily contaminates if it is applied to a fresh wound than to an ulcer, in this resembling the inoculation of the small-pox. Whether there are any parts of the skin, or any other part of the body, more susceptible of this irritation than others, in consequence of local application, is not yet ascertained. This form of the disease,'like the first, or gonorrhoea, is generally caught on the parts of generation, in consequence of a connexion between the sexes ; but any part of the body may be affected by the application of venereal matter, especially if the cuticle is thin. I have seen a chancre on the prolabium, as broad as a sixpence, caught the person did not know how.* The penis, and particularly the prepuce, being the parts most commonly affected by this form of the disease, are so constructed as to suffer much from it, espe- cially when they are very susceptible of such irritation, for the construction alone produces many inconveniences, besides con- siderable pain, while under the disease, and in general retards the cure. The chancre is not so frequent an effect of the poison as the gonorrhoea, and I think very good reasons may be assigned for it, although there are more modes than one of catching it, as I just now mentioned ; but the parts in two of them, to wit, the wound and the sore, are seldom in the way of being infected; therefore when it is caught, it is commonly by the same mode of application with that of the gonorrhoea ; but as the cuticle cannot be affected by this poison, this covering acting as a guard to the cutis, it is often prevented from coming in contact with it; and indeed it is almost surprising that the cutis should be affected by it where it has such a covering, excepting about the glans, the inside of the prepuce or other parts of the body, where this covering is thin. The proportion which the cases of* gonorrhoea bear to those of chancre is as four or five to one. When it is caught in men it is generally upon the fraenum, glans penis, prepuce, or upon the common skin of the body of the penis, and sometimes on the forepart of the scrotum ; but I think most frequently on the frrenum, and in the angle between the penis and glans. Its affecting these parts arises from the manner in which it is caught, and not from any specific tendency in these parts to catch it more than others ; and its affecting the frasnum, &c. more frequently than the other parts of the penis arises from the external form of this part, which is irregular, and allows the venereal matter to lie undisturbed in the chinks, by which means it has time to irri- tate and inflame the parts, and to produce suppurative and ulcerative inflammation in them. But as this matter is easily rubbed off from prominent parts by every thing that touches them, it is a reason why such parts in general so often escape this disease. The distance of time between its application and its effects upon * That this sore was a chancre I made no doubt, for besides its diseased ap. pearance, he had a bubo forming in one of the glands under the lower jaw, on the same side. J ' It is most probable that his own fingers were the conveyers.
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