The science of life, or, Self-preservation : a medical treatise on nervous and physical debility, spermatorrhœa, impotence, and sterility, with practical observations on the treatment of diseases of the generative organs / by Albert H. Hayes.
- Hayes, Albert H. (Albert Hamilton)
- Date:
- [1868], ©1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The science of life, or, Self-preservation : a medical treatise on nervous and physical debility, spermatorrhœa, impotence, and sterility, with practical observations on the treatment of diseases of the generative organs / by Albert H. Hayes. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![I would here say that the sexvial diseases which de- ra&ttited Europe about the period of the return of Columbus from tlie discovery of America, are so altered or Diodifled as to bear no relation to the horrible, yet doubtlessly faithful relations of the historians of that period. It was the opinion of Hunter that gonorrhoea and chancre arose from tlie same S])cciflc virus, and hif» practice was conformable and followed out (until the days of Cline, Cooper, and Abernethy,) by the adminis- tration of mercury, equally for the cure of both diseases; but Hunter's authority is fast declining. The late Sir Astley Cooper, in refersnce to this distinction, was accustomed to observe, Let me say no greater folly, nor indeed cruelty, can be coD^mitted than that of giving mercury to patients l;xborinf under gonorrhoea. I abstain from entering the venereal yards of the other hospital, because patients under gono'-rhcea are com- pelled to midergo so inlamous a system of treatment. Hunter spoke perhaps truly of a particuku' species of * sore, but he geuerahzed too much, identifying the true Chancre with eveiy other species of idcer resulting from venereal intercourse; hence his conclusions are much modified in modern practice. He taught us to beUeve that it Li the invai'iable rule of all truly venereal sores to becoaie progressively worse, and never undergo any amendment, unless mercury, the specitic remedy, l^e administered. Thus chancres on the penis and secondary sotte throat arc described as constantly growing worse without the aid of mercury. Now the fact is, there arc many sores wliich become kritable and disposed to slough under the mercurial ti'eatmeut; and iguoraut suigeons, mistaldng «](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20407385_0058.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
