Volume 1

A system of medicine / edited by J. Russell Reynolds.

Date:
1866-1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of medicine / edited by J. Russell Reynolds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    940/976 (page 920)
    GONORRHOEAL RHEUMATISM. By Beenaed Edward Beodhuest, F.R.C.S. The affection which is known as Gonorrhoeal Rheumatism con- sists of inflammation of and about joints, following upon urethral irritation, and preceded for the most part by a muco-purulent urethral discharge. Swediaur and Monteggria are said to have described this affection, and to have published cases illustrative of the disease; but there is not anything to be found in their writings which entitles them to the merit which has been claimed for them, and indeed there ought to be no hesitation in saying that the disease does not seem to have been recognised until Sir Astley Cooper mentioned it in his lectures. Mr. South says, “ Gonorrhoeal Rheumatism and gonorrhoeal ophthalmia were, I believe, first mentioned publicly by Astley Cooper, and the first of these affections he considers is not an'infrequent disease ; but it appears to have been previously observed by the elder Cline, for, in reply to the question put to him by Cooper, whether he had ever seen rheumatism produced from gonorrhoea, he said, c Several times.’ ” * Sir Benjamin Brodie has given some pathological account of this disease, and having described its nature, he continues thus:—“ The disease is usually described under the name of Gonorrhoeal Rheuma- tism, though it is plain, from the course of its symptoms and from the effects of remedies, that it differs from ordinary rheumatism in many essential circumstances ; and though there seems to be no doubt that, ■while it occurs in most instances as a consequence of gonorrhoea, it may take place quite independently of gonorrhoeal infection. f Sir Astley Cooper relates the' following case:—“ An American gentleman came to me with a gonorrhoea, and after he had told me his story, I smiled, and said/Do so and so,’ particularizing the treatment, and that he would soon be better; but he stopped me, and said, ‘ Not so fast, sir ; a gonorrhoea with me is not to be made so light of; it is no trifle ; for in a short time you will find me with inflam- mation in the eyes, and in a few days after I shall have rheumatism in the joints. I do not say this from the experience ot one gonorrhoea only, but from that of two, and on each occasion I was afflicted in A System of Surgery, by Chelius, translated by John F. South, vol. i. p. 217. + Pathological and Surgical Observations on the Diseases of the Joints. 5th edit,^