A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/490 page 14
    • . . \ ' - * * V. OF THE POISON BEING THE SAME IN GONORRHOEA AND IN CHANCRE. It has been supposed by many that the gonorrhoea and the chancre arise from two distinct poisons; and their opinion seems to have soroo foundation, when we consider only the different appearances of the two diseases, and the different methods of cure; which in judging of the nature of many diseases is too often all we have to go by. Yet if we take up this question upon other grounds, and also have recourse to experiments, the result of which we can absolutely depend upon, we shall find this notion to be erroneous. If we attend to the manner in which the venereal poison was com- municated to the inhabitants of the island in the South-Seas, there are many circumstances which tend to throw light upon the present question. It has been supposed, as no mention is made of a gonorrhoea at Otabeite, that it must have been the chancre that was first intro- duced into that island; and that of course nothing but a chancre could be propagated there; for as no gonorrhoea had been communicated no such disease could take place. But if we were to reason upon all the probable circumstances attending the voyages to that part of the world we should conclude the contrary ; for it was almost impossible to carry a chancre so long a voyage without its destroying the penis ; while we know from experience, that a gonorrhoea may continue for a great length of time. , It is mentioned in Cook’s voyage, that the people of Otabeite, who had this disease, went into the country and got cured; but when it turned into a pox it was then incurable: this shews that the disease which they had must have been a gonorrhoea, for wre know that it is only a gonorrhoea that can be cured by simple means; and further, if it had been a chancre, and they had been acquainted with tie means of curing it, they could also have cured the lues venerea. Wallis left Plymouth in August 1766, and arrived at Otaheite in July 1 767 eleven months after his embarkation; and if none of his
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