A practical treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of spermatorrhoea / by M. Lallemand ; translated and edited by Henry J. McDougall.

  • Claude François Lallemand
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of spermatorrhoea / by M. Lallemand ; translated and edited by Henry J. McDougall. 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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    . M. B , previously to the attack of blennorrhagia, had never suffered from any cutaneous affection; from this date ulceration ap- peared periodically round the glans penis : this might be supposed to have arisen from a syphilitic affection, but it resisted the most active anti-venereal treatment. Its appearance put an end to the pain in the perineum and testicles: as soon as the sores healed, these symp- toms returned, and diurnal spermatic discharges accompanied them. It seemed probable that the application of nitrate of silver would lessen the morbid irritability of the urethral mucous membrane; it produced no appreciable effect, however. Artificial sulphur baths were used with advantage when they con- tained only sulphuret of potassium ; when sulphuric acid was added, in order to increase their activity, all the symptoms re-appeared; on resuming the use of the sulphuret of potassium alone, the cure proceeded with rapidity. It is remarkable, also, in this case, that river bathing always in- creased the pain in the loins, while sea bathing aggravated the pain in the perineum. Anomalies of this kind abound in the treatment of spermatorrhoea, and much careful research is often necessary to explain them; the relation of such cases will, however, put practi- tioners on their guard by furnishing analogies for their guidance. Baths containing sulphuret of potassium are especially indicated whenever a cutaneous affection co-exists with considerable sensibi- lity of the mucous surfaces; but, when the irritation of the genital organs is very severe, they are often contra-indicated. In such cases, cauterization, though it may not cure, at least will diminish the excessive sensibility.1 Causes.—I have before stated that the cause of spermatorrhoea is a most important circumstance for our consideration. The truth of this becomes more evident as we proceed; but it often happens tha,t several causes act simultaneously or successively, and that we are not able clearly to discover which of them exercises the greatest influence in the production of the disease. Blennorrhagia is the most active and the most direct, as well as the most easily appreciated, of all these causes, and this is why I have commenced by reporting cases in which it has played a princi- pal part. When these cases are examined separately with some attention, we soon perceive that the discharge has been preceded, accompanied, or followed, by some circumstances capable, by their^ own action, of giving rise to spermatorrhoea. It is necessary to pay* attention to this point. In one patient I had occasion to treat, hereditary pre-disposition ' M. Lallemand has reported many more cases of involuntary spermatic discharges following blennorrhagia; as, however, they differ very slightly from one another, and the same treatment was applied to all, I have thought it as well to omit the re- mainder of them. In fact the connexion between blennorrhagia and involuntary sper- matic discharges, seems so well established by the cases above related, as to require no further confirmation—[H. J. McD.]