On a new way of treating gonorrhoea / by John L. Milton.

  • Milton, J. L. (John Laws), 1820-1898.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a new way of treating gonorrhoea / by John L. Milton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    b. External applications.—Por the sake of accurate examina- tion, it will be best to divide these into, 1, cold applications, as ice, evaporating lotions, &c.; 2, warm, as hot fomentations, baths, &c.; and 3, sedatives ; and then to ascertain their comparative value, and see if there are any fixed rules to guide us in making use of them. How far cold lotions, particularly r.s they are generally em- ployed, act beneficially in checking the pain and inflammation and in abating the heat felt in the penis, or in fact, in other inflammations, especially where mucous membranes are impli- cated, is a question which perhaps a future race of surgeons will be subject to a more vigorous examination before recommending them, I have yet to learn that there is on record a series of observations, in which it was shown by indisputable testimony, that where equal numbers of patients were submitted to the same treatment, those of them who were in addition treated with cold applications, really derived more benefit than the others. Until a fact like this, leaves no resource but conviction I have only the alternative of blindly trusting to doctrines laid down by others, contrary to my own conviction, or assuming what observation would show me; viz., that they are not only useless but often absolutely injurious ; for they seem sometimes to accelerate, rather than act as a bar to the progress of the inflammation; to increase the pain and sense of weight in the penis, testicles, and perinseum, especially if at all severe before they are applied; and finally, they seem to exert very little influence over any kind of swelling. ' When the penis can be kept covered with a single fold of linen assiduously wetted with a cold lotion, the heat is rapidly conducted away, and sometimes the penis becomes cool, and the symptoms seem reheved. But then it is difficult to say how much of the relief is due to the quiet, which is at the same time observed, and not one patient in fifty, can, or will, confine himself so strictly to one position, or take so much trouble as this would impose on him. But applied as these lotions generally are, either with a thick mass of linen, which so far from conducting away the heat, serves only to retain it, or merely used to bathe the penis two or three times a day, it is unreasonable to expect any good efi'ect from them. With such unsatisfactory testimony of their value, let us see how far their place can be supplied by hot apiilications.