ORDO I.
Increased Sensation.
GENUS [V].
With the Production of new Vessels by external Membranes or Glands, without Fever.
The ulcers, or eruptions, which are formed on the external skin, or on the mouth or throat, or on the air-cells of the lungs, or on the intestines, all of which are more or less exposed to the contact of the atmospheric air, which we breathe, and which in some proportion we swallow with our food and saliva; or to the contact of the inflammable air, or hydrogen, which is set at liberty by the putrefying aliment in the intestines, or by putrefying matter in large abscesses; all of them produce contagious matter; which, on being inoculated into the skin of another person, will produce fever, or a similar disease.
In some cases even the matter formed beneath the skin becomes in some degree contagious, at least so much so as to produce fever of the hectic or malignant kind, as soon as it has pierced through the skin, and has thus gained access to some kind of air; as the fresh puss of a common abscess; or the putrid pus of an abscess, which has been long confined; or of cancerous ulcers.
From this analogy there is reason to suspect, that the matter of all contagious diseases, whether with or without fever, is not infectious till it has acquired something from the air; which, by oxygenating the secreted matter, may probably produce a new acid. And secondly, that in hectic fever a part of the purulent matter is absorbed; or acts on the surface of the ulcer; as variolous matter affects the inoculated part of the arm. And that hectic fever is therefore caused by the matter of an open ulcer; and not by the sensation in the ulcer independent of the aerated pus, which lies on it. Which may account for the venereal matter from buboes not giving the infection, according to the experiments of the late Mr. Hunter, and for some other phenomena of contagion. See Variola discreta, Class [II. 1. 3. 9].
SPECIES.
[1]. Gonorrhœa venerea. A pus-like contagious material discharged from the urethra after impure cohabitation, with smarting or heat on making water; which begins at the external extremity of the urethra, to which the contagious matter is applied, and where it has access to the air.
M. M. In this state of the venereal disease once venesection, with mild cathartics of senna and manna, with mucilage, as almond emulsion, and gum arabic, taken for two or three weeks, absolve the cure. Is camphor of use to relieve the ardor urinæ? Do balsams increase or lessen the heat of urine? Neutral salts certainly increase the smarting in making water, by increasing the acrimony of the urine.