View larger image
View larger image
The accompanying drawings represent the extent of the redness and the first appearance of the pimple. The upper diagram alludes to the irritation and excoriation around the frænum, and the lower, the first evidence of a chancre. I am describing the most common form of chancre, such as is known in the profession as Mr. Hunter’s chancre. A perceptible hardness next ensues round the pimple, which becomes more elevated when it ulcerates, or, in other words, the head gets broken off and a little hollow is left. The tumor (for such it may be called) is generally of a limited circumference, seldom exceeding the size of a silver penny, unless in an advanced stage of the disease. When a chancre attacks the frænum, and undermines it, as it were, the frænum is often destroyed; and of course, with its destruction, departs its property of controlling or of directing the orifice of the urethra in urinating, or in the emission of the semen.
View larger image
This drawing exhibits three ulcers: one on the prepuce, another under the frænum, having eaten its way through, as marked by the black cross-line, and the third situated on the glans.
When the pimple appears on the outside of the prepuce for instance, it assumes generally a larger form, and, as the head is broken off, crust after crust rises up, until the process of ulceration has very far advanced, or the applications that are generally employed prevent its re-formation. In the former instance, the crusts are attributable to evaporation of the discharge; in the latter, their absence is already explained by the prevention of the same. There is such a thing as sympathy in eruptive disorders. In skin affections of the corners of the mouths of children, we often see the inflammation cross from corner to corner. The same is observable where the attacks comprise the angle of an eye. So is it with the penis, a structure equally as delicate; and accordingly the edges of the prepuce often put on a jagged appearance resembling chaps on hands.
