On the pathology and treatment of gonorrhœa / by J.L. Milton.

  • Milton, J. L. (John Laws), 1820-1898.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology and treatment of gonorrhœa / by J.L. Milton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    tions. Let her be ever so healthy at the time of her first liaison, she may be potentially fit to do any amount of mischief in this way, and carry with- in her a predisposition to communicate the infectious property to any dis- charge she may acquire, however innocently. The list of affections which may thus become tainted is appalling, but still the vehicle is visible, and we understand that such a thing, however improbable, might happen. M. Ricord's account is simply incomprehensible. But this is all the merit that can be conceded to M. Diday's statement. It is put forth in a form which robs it of half its value. True, the picture is graphically drawn, in- deed, he yields here in no way to M. Ricord, or perhaps anyone else ; the terms are trenchant and incisive enough, and the facts arrayed in a way which does credit to his skill as a writer ; but after all, it simply expresses a conviction which may be very well founded, but which may equally, as regards the evidence offered, be a truism or an error. Had he told us that out of every hundred women who marry so many have a morbid dis- charge, and that out of every hundred women who become liable to such discharges so many communicate gonorrhoea, we should know what to say. As it is, his account is more alarming than valuable. Let me, however, render one tribute of justice to both these charming writers. If they do not untie the knot they promote the interests of morality, for it is over the head of the erring lover, not the husband, that they hang the impend- ing sword. 3. The third class of causes need not detain us long. Those who have seen true gonorrhoea brought on by eating asparagus or over-fatigue have been more favored than myself. I have noticed yellow purulent dis- charge from the urethra in an elderly man who, I have very good reason to think, was strictly continent; and I have seen a thin, yellowish, dirty > and rather profuse discharge come on in a young patient suffering from bad influenza. Such discharges, too, come occasionally, but rarely, before us, reported by the patient to be the effect of a sprain. Again, I suppose most practitioners have now and then been consulted about a thick, white secretion and scalding, occurring in gouty persons, especially if the urine should happen to be loaded with urates and uric acid. As to M. Four- nier's statement, that venereal excess is the most frequent cause of gon- orrhoea, I meet it by saying that I have repeatedly had to deal with men of unbridled passions, who indulged such passions to any extent with im- punity, never, indeed, had a sign of such an affection so long as they kept aloof from prostitutes, and whom I have treated over and over again for gonorrhoea contracted in the natural way. Respecting all the other agen- cies I have no experience, except as to two or three, and these in a nega- tive sense. These remainders, then, are passing a bougie, masturbation, scrofula,1 dentition, piles, and ascarides. The influence of the first I Johnson : Op. citat., p 39.