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If the gonorrhœal discharge be suffered to remain on particular parts of the person, such as around the glans of the penis, or on the outside of the foreskin, excoriations, chaps, and warts, spring up speedily and plentifully, and protrude before the prepuce, or sometimes become adherent to it, as here drawn: it therefore only shows how necessary cleanliness is in these disagreeable complaints, to escape the vexations alluded to. A species of insect also is apt to appear about the hairy part of the genital organs, and indeed extend all over the body, particularly in those parts where hair grows, such as under the armpits, chest, head, &c., if cleanliness be not observed. They are called crabs. The itching they give rise to is very harassing, and the patient, unable to withstand scratching, rubs the parts unto sores, which, in healing, exude little crusts that break off and bleed.
| A. The Pubis studded with these insects. B. The Crabs, or Pediculi Pubis, as they are called, about their natural size, as picked from the skin. View larger image |
A. The Pubis studded with these insects.
B. The Crabs, or Pediculi Pubis, as they are called, about their natural size, as picked from the skin.
When the gonorrhœa has been severe and there has been much constitutional disturbance, there frequently hang about what are called flying rheumatic pains; and sometimes, if the patient’s health be much broken up, confirmed rheumatism seizes hold of him, and wearies him out of several months of his existence. I have seen many a fine constitution, by a tedious ill-treated or neglected gonorrhœa, much injured, that, had the sufferer consulted a medical man of even ordinary talent, in the first instance, instead of foolishly leaving the disease to wear itself out with the help of this recommended by one, and that by the other, he might have shaken off the hydra, and have averted the hundred vexations that follow.
I come now to add to the list of calamitous consequences, stricture, which, in my opinion, prevails to an enormous extent; however, its consideration will be reserved, as well as the affections of the bladder, and prostate gland, for their proper places. I will simply repeat my impression that a stricture, or narrowing of the urethra, or some organic changes, invariably ensue when the gonorrhœa has been mismanaged, or its cure unfortunately protracted.
It is the opinion of many medical men, and it can, no doubt, be borne out by many patients, that a gonorrhœa if unattended by any untoward circumstance, will wear itself out, and that the duration of such a proceeding is from one to two months; there is no disputing but such has been, and is now and then the case, but such rarely stand even so fair a chance of recovery as to be left entirely alone: even if medicine be not taken, rest, abstemiousness, and such like means, are seldom followed up; either the patient lives gloriously free, or else goes to the opposite extreme.