Prophylaxis.—Protect from the bites of mosquitoes, especially those which breed in the vicinity of human habitations. The most effective method of doing this is the careful use of a mosquito net.
Gonorrhœa.
Gonorrhœa, or clap, is an acute inflammation of the urethra or pipe, attended with a discharge of more or less matter. It is nearly always due to direct contagion.
Symptoms.—At first there is some itching about the end of the pipe, which is followed by a yellowish-white discharge. This lasts from three to five days. Then great pain is noticed on passing water, and the discharge becomes thick and yellowish-green in colour, with redness and swelling about the lips of the opening of the pipe. After a time the pain on making water disappears, and the discharge becomes thin and watery, a condition known as “gleet.”
Treatment.—Forbid alcohol in any form. Give large quantities of liquid—water, weak tea, or milk—to thoroughly flush the system. Light diet and as complete rest as possible. Keep bowels well open with saline and other purges. Give sandal-wood oil or copaiba, twenty drops three times a day, and urotropin, ten grains twice a day.
If there is much pain in the acute stage, a mixture containing fifteen grains of bicarbonate of soda, and five drops of chlorodyne or laudanum, in an ounce of water, may be given twice a day. Except in very acute cases the pipe should be syringed out with a very weak solution of permanganate of potash, or better, a solution of protargol (quarter to two per cent.); later on, a lotion containing four grains of sulphate of zinc to one ounce of water may be used as an injection.
If the glands in the groin become tender and inflamed, they should be painted with tincture of iodine. If, in spite of this, the pain and swelling increase, they should be poulticed frequently, and treated as ordinary abscesses.
Hay Fever.
This is a very severe catarrh which attacks certain individuals yearly, when grasses and other plants are flowering. It is most probably due to the irritation of the nose by pollen grains in the air.