A text-book on gonorrhea and its complications / by Georges Luys ; translated and edited by Arthur Forester.

  • Luys, Georges, 1870-1953
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book on gonorrhea and its complications / by Georges Luys ; translated and edited by Arthur Forester. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/424 page 8
    former are of a weak constitution, they would suffer. A preparation of sufhi- cient hardness is required which can be applied to the caruncle without damaging any other part over which it has to pass. “ One should, however, not forget,” says Ferri, “ that the older the caruncle, the more difficult it 1s to cure, and, therefore, gradually stronger remedies have to be tried if the milder ones have failed. If topics be insufficient to destroy the caruncle, one has to resort to the use of an argaly, or of a pointed and cutting sound, in order to penetrate more readily. The flow of blood caused by these instruments should not cause alarm; it is even most beneficial, providing the blood comes from the caruncle, and not from any other part. Whether this is so can always be made out easily, because one can feel if the point of the argaly or of the sound is in contact with the caruncle, in which case the operation is most successful. The subsequent flow of urine cleanses and dries the tissues, and thus leads to cicatrization, no further intervention being required.” In the Sixteenth Century, Lacuna wrote a treatise on the same subject— Methodus Cognoscendi, extirpandique in Vesice Collo Carunculas. He ce- scribes bougies which melt after they have been introduced. He says that they are beyond praise, and that they consume all ulcers and carnosities without causing much pain. He also gives a list of the cases of venereal strangury which he cured with his bougies. Ambroise Paré’s celebrated work Des Chaudes-pisses et Carnositez engendrées au Méat Urinal appeared in 1564. It deals mainly with syphilis, but the causes of gonorrhea are men- tioned: “The clap is due to three causes—overeating, starvation, and infection. It comes on after intercourse with a woman who has had some ulcer about her privates, some syphilitic matter.” Paré thus confounded gonorrhea and syphilis, and this mistake prevailed until the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Ambroise Paré resumed his treatment of gonorrhea as follows: “ A learned doctor should be called in, and he should bleed and purge the patient, if necessary, and direct the diet.”” He forbade all rich food, wine, and the company of women, “ even to see them in paintings or otherwise.” Cold baths, as little sleep as possible, and a certain refreshing plaster which was to be applied to the loins and to the genitals, he considered useful. He recommended the use of turpentine with emphasis, as he believed it to be an excellent drug for gonorrhea. Apart from turpentine, he ordered his patients to avoid “all things which heat the blood,” and violent exercise. They had to sleep on a hard bed, and to drink lemon-juice or barley-water. He alleviated the pain on micturition during the acute stage by recom- mending the patient to micturate “into a vessel containing warm milk, in which he dips his penis whilst he makes water. If no milk is at hand,
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3