On the pathology and treatment of gonorrhoea / by J.L. Milton.
- Milton, J. L. (John Laws), 1820-1898
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the pathology and treatment of gonorrhoea / by J.L. Milton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![As to paraphymosis little need be said. The surgeon should carefully cleanse the penis, and then attempt the reduction of the strangulated part, in which with a little perseverance he will generally succeed. Some authors, Fricke among the number, pro- fess to have never failed. I have not been so fortunate, and I have seen much better surgeons than myself make the attempt ineffec- tually.1 This however is not of much importance, as in gonorrhoea, if properly treated, the strangulation, when not neglected, is never severe and rarely attains such severity as to require cutting of the constricting band. If it should the evil is easily met.2 Dr. Mason Good tells us that in this variety, amputation of a larger or smaller portion of the penis may be necessary (!).8 I must say this is a consolatory view to take of the matter, and the reader, if he ever suffer from paraphymosis, may thank Heaven that Dr. Good is not alive and likely to attend him. Why in the very worst cases it would be far better not to meddle with the affair, as when gangrene ensues the utmost that can happen is that the loose part of the prepuce is thrown off. Even this, I apprehend, must be extremely rare. Dr. Durkee 4 speaks of it as a fact, which the medical attendant sometimes witnesses. I have not myself seen it from gonorrhoea. 7. Balanitis is one of the most easy complications to deal with, although some attempts have been made to bring it within the category of complaints requiring extraordinary means. M. Ricord advises cauterization, and if the patient be quite indifferent as to the amount of pain he may suffer, or perhaps rather prefer it, it will answer as well as mild lotions of sulphate of zinc in camphor mixture, four grains to an ounce, or sulphate of copper in rose- water of the same strength, syringed under the foreskin two cr 1 Rollet, p. 548. 2 In the good old times of Musitanus, once a great authority in those matters, the doctors seem to have made sharp work with the swelling from paraphymosis. The plan was to humble the crystalline [the swelling] with sublimate, and then touch the affected part with tincture of tobacco, which was to be done when the patient is lying, lest the Violence of the Pain, because of the violent operation of the Tincture, should make him drop down in convulsions !—Cockburn, Op. cit., p. 246. 3 When gonorrhoea was considered to be syphilis, the removal of the organ seems to have been often a dernier ressort. Amputation of the penis, says Cockburn (p. 224), has been often the last remedy for the sharp matter of the gonorrhoea. * Op. cit., p. 78.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21067508_0181.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
