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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    to gonorrhoea, in the neighborhood of the meatus urinarius, are of no value. The cessation of the gonorrhoeal discharge, whilst leucorrhoea may continue, during the menstrual period, as John Fernel, Liebault, Mer- catus, &c, thought, and which Baglivi regarded as an infallible sign, is also illusive. The absence of pain, according to Pinel, and that felt in the emis- sion of urine, according to Charleton, have no more value than the whitish and copperish stains, and the pale red tint, given by M. Eicherand. After what I have said above, we also know what value to attach to the alterations in the tissues, with regard to which M. Lagneau entirely agrees with me. As to the power of infection of the discharge in a female, as well as in the male, it depends rather on its acrid, irritating nature, than on anything else, and can lead to no rigorous conclusion. Finally, if we refer to the age of the patient, to the moral presump- tion in the case, or to the antecedents, we are still left in the dark, as Hunter himself justly remarks ; for whatever the causes of the disease may be, the symptoms produced are identical. Hence, by means of the preceding signs, we can only establish dif- ferent varieties in those inflammations in women which are reputed gonorrhoeal, without approximating nearer to a knowledge of their cause; but in every case, any one can distinguish, as I have done, the discharge from a chancre, by means of the speculum or inoculation. One fact, which I ought to mention, giving it only that degree of im- portance which it deserves,1 is, that in every case of urethral gonorrhoea that I have met with, the woman confessed that she had caught the disease, or at least that she had been exposed to it.—Kicord.] CHAPTER III. OF THE EFFECTS OF THE GONORRHOEA ON THE CONSTITUTION IN BOTH SEXES. The disease I have been describing, both in men and women, is local, and generally confined to the part affected; yet it sometimes happens that the whole constitution is more or less affected by it. Thus we find,_ before there is any appearance of matter from the parts, that some patients complain of slight rigors; these are most consider- able when the suppuration is late in taking place. A remarkable ' I have Italicized M. Ricord's words, that lie may not be misunderstood to lay this down as an absolute rule. M Vidal, in his late work, represents him as making urethritis in the female an absolute diagnostic sign of contagion! It is almost need- less to say that M.Rxcord would be the last person in the world to entertain an opinion so contrary to his first principles.—Ed. *