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
Catalogue details

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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    rhcea but that lie was immediately seized universally with rheumatic pains; this had happened to him several times. The blood at such times is generally free from the inflammatory appearance, and there- fore we may suppose that the constitution is but little affected.1 When the gonorrhoea (exclusive of the affections arising from sym- pathy) is not more violent than I have described, it may be called common or simple venereal gonorrhoea; but if the patient is very susceptible of such irritation, or of any other mode of action which may accompany the venereal, then the symptoms are in proportion more violent. In such circumstances we sometimes find the irritation and inflammation exceed the specific distance, and extend through the whole of the urethra. There is often also a considerable degree of pain in the perineum; and a frequent though not a constant symptom is a spasmodic contraction of the accleratores uringe, which is always attended with contractions of the erectores muscles. Whether these spasms arise from a secretion of matter, which being collected in the bulbous part of the urethra produces uneasiness, and excites contrac- tions in order to its own expulsion, like the last drops of urine, I have not been able to determine. I have seen such spasms in the time of , making water, from the urine irritating the parts in its passage through the urethra, and throwing the musculi acceleratores into contractions, so that the water has come by jerks. This kind of inflammation some- times is considerable, goes deep into the cellular membrane, and pro- duces tumefactions without any other effect.3 In other cases it goes on to suppuration, often becoming one of the causes of fistulee in perinaeo. I have sometimes, as I have already observed, suspected Cowper's glands to be the seat of such suppurations; for I have ob- served externally circumscribed swellings in the situation of those glands. The small glands likewise of the bulbous part of the urethra may be affected in a similar manner; and the irritation is often ex- tended even to the bladder itself.3 When the bladder is affected it becomes more susceptible of every kind of irritation, so that very disagreeable symptoms are often pro- duced; it will not allow of the usual distension, and therefore the patient cannot retain his water the ordinary time; and the moment the desire of making water takes place, he is obliged instantly to make it with violent pain in the bladder, and still more in the glans penis, exactly similar to what happens in a fit of the stone. If the bladder be not allowed to discharge its contents immediately, the pain becomes almost intolerable; and even when the water is evacuated, there remains for some time a considerable pain both in the bladder and glans, because 1 Hunter refers to gonorrhceal rheumatism, of which we shall speak hereafter.—Ricoed. 2 Added : There is often a pain in the urethra after making water, in the same part in which it is usually felt while the water passes ; this I believe to be the effect of the contraction of the internal membranes, which lasts for some time after the action has ceased.—Home. 8 Added: This happens more commonly towards the going off of the gonorrhoea. —Home. [It is very rare, indeed, for the bladder to become affected at the commencement of a gonorrhoea. Without being, in every case, one of the final phenomena, different degrees of the irritation most frequently occur after the disease has lasted some time. —Ricoed.]