Church Street, Soho.
Nov. 21. 1775.
AN
ESSAY
ON
G L E E T S, &c.
I ENTER in the subject without any preamble.
A gleet, by the want of skill in those who undertake to cure venereal diseases, is but too often the sad consequence[8] of a virulent gonorrhœa.
The running is ever more or less coloured, often of a green tint, more often of a pale yellow, and sometimes of a dark brown, a little blood being mixed with it.
The matter discharged comes from the ulcerated glands of the internal tunic of the urethra: but when the running suddenly increases, it always proceeds, or from an inflammation of the muscular tunic, as happens after too freely enjoying the bottle and the company of women, or from a rarefaction of the fluids[9], caused by the expansion of the internal air; as happens in spring and autumn, two seasons where the atmosphere, being less elastic, does not oppose so great a resistance to the action of the internal air.
Formerly the running was attributed to a relaxation of the affected parts, an opinion still in credit among the ignorant; but by introducing a probe in the urethra, every one may be convinced that it is wholly caused by ulcers. Daran, who first made this discovery, attempted to cure gleets by suppurative bougies. His method was soon adopted as the most rational, and ever since followed by the best practitioners. Undoubtedly it proved successful in many cases; but in many others proved abortive, even in the hands of Daran himself.
Long I had not seen bougies employed for curing gleets, without finding them often ineffectual: however, as it was not my province to treat venereal diseases, this method had not engaged my attention. Mere chance afterwards obliged me to turn my thoughts to the subject, as I shall now relate with the reader’s permission.
Calling one morning on an intimate friend of mine at Paris, I found him involved in the deepest melancholy. On enquiring into the cause, he acquainted me, that having been so long in the hands of Daran for the cure of a gleet, he at last thought himself free of it, when, on a sudden, he was cruelly disappointed. Upon which he begged of me to give him any advice in my power, his situation being extremely critical on the point of marriage with a young lady of fortune whom he loved, and with whom he could not bear the thought of engaging, while under so cruel a circumstance. On this I said to him all that occurred to me just then for his consolation.