A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with copious additions, by Philip Ricord ; translated and edited, with notes, by Freeman J. Bumstead.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1859
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with copious additions, by Philip Ricord ; translated and edited, with notes, by Freeman J. Bumstead. 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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![In some cases, the persistence of the pain constitutes a true nervous affection, a urethralgia, which may be continuous, irregular, or deci- dedly intermittent. To the therapeutic agents mentioned by Hunter, the following should especially be added: small cold opiated enemata; frictions with laudanum, or extract of belladonna over the course of the urethra; passing these substances into the canal by means of a bougie, and, above all, following the advice of Professor Lallemand, of Montpelier, superficial cauterization of the canal with his instrument. I have often succeeded in obstinate cases, by using a blister, sprinkled with morphia, and by giving sulphate of quinia, combined with camphor, when there was any appearance of intermittence.— Eicoed.] [Editor.—M. Yidal states that he has succeeded in obtaining speedy and complete relief in these neuralgic pains in the urethra following gonorrhoea, by a very simple means, viz.: compression of the penis. This is exercised by means of strips of sticking-plaster, half an inch wide, and just long enough to encircle the organ. They are first applied to the glans, and then con- tinued up to the scrotum, each strip overlapping the preceding one. They should be applied as tight as possible, without interfering with the passage of the water, and should be continued after the pain has ceased, in order to prevent a relapse. This method is chiefly applicable to those cases in which the pain is situated in the spongy portion of the urethra. M. Civiale states that one of the most efficacious remedies in this affection is the introduction into the canal of a soft bougie, of medium size, and leaving it there five or ten minutes. This should be repeated every day. Many of these cases are dependent on the mental state cf the patient, and require mental rather than physical treatment.] § 2. Of a Gleet. Whatever method has been had recourse to in the cure of the vene- real inflammation, whether injections have been used or internal medi- cines (mercurials, purgatives, or astringents), it often happens that the formation of pus shall continue, and prove more tedious and difficult of cure than the original disease. For, as I have already observed, the venereal inflammation is of such a nature as to go off itself, or to wear itself out; or, in other words, it is such an action of the living powers as can subsist only for a certain time. But this is not the case with a gleet, which seems to take its rise from a habit of action which the parts have contracted; and, as they have no disposition to lay aside this action, it of course is continued; for we find in those gonor- rhoeas which last long, and are tedious in their cure, that this habit is more rooted than in those which go off soon. This disease, however, has not always the disposition to continue, for it often appears to stop of itself, even after every method has been ineffectually used. It is most probable that this arises from some](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21131521_0138.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
