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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![tion and inflammation in the urethra in man; and what would incline me to think so is, that this canal is subject to be more fre- quently out of order than any other, producing a great variety of symptoms. § ]. Varieties in different Constitutions. This disease, when it appears in the form either of a gonorrhoea or a chancre, differs very much in the violence of its symptoms in different people. In some it is extremely mild, in others extremely violent. When mild, it is generally simple in its symptoms, having but few, and those of no great extent, being much confined to the specific distance ; but when A'iolent, it becomes more complicated in its symptoms, having a greater variety, and extending itself be- yond the specific distance. This does not arise from any variety in the specific virtue of the poison, but from a difference in the dis- position and mode of action of the body, or parts of the body, some being hardly susceptible of this or any irritation, others being very susceptible of it, and of every other irritation, so as to readily run into violent action. The venereal irritation, however, does not always follow these rules ; for I have known young men, in whom a sore from com- mon accident has healed up readily, yet the irritation attending a gonorrhoea has been violent, and a chancre has inflamed and spread itself with great rapidity, and even has mortified. On the other hand, I have known young men, in whom a sore from common violence has been healed with great difficulty, yet when they had contracted a gonorrhoea or chancre, the disease has been mild and easily curable. In particular people it is either mild or severe, for the most part, uniformly. In the first-stated dispositions it is not invariably so; but then I believe there is some indisposition at the time. Thave known several gentlemen who had their gonorrhoeas so slight in common that they frequently cured themselves. But it has so happened that a gonorrhoea has been remarkably severe, and has obliged them to apply for assistance ; but then they were soon attacked with the symptoms of a fever; and when the fever has gone off, the symptoms of the gonorrhoea have immediately become mild. I may now also observe, that when the disease is in the form of a lues venerea, different constitutions are differently affected.— In some its progress is very rapid, in others it is very slow.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21131508_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
