Practical observations on the venereal disease, and on the use of mercury / By Abraham Colles.

  • Colles, Abraham, 1773-1843.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on the venereal disease, and on the use of mercury / By Abraham Colles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    his applying to some other surgeon, in whom they have more con- fidence: nor is it to be wondered at, that these changes should take place three or four times during the continuance of such a protracted state of suffering. If we wish to watch the course of this disease in an hospital patient, we are prevented not only by the fact, that he also loses confidence in the skill of his surgeon, and becomes anxious to put himself under the care of some other, but also frequently by the rules of the institution, which will not admit of a patient being retained beyond a limited period, when his case is not in a certain train to be cured. During the long period in which I have been engaged in practice I cannot recollect to have retained, during its entire course, the confidence and treat- ment of a protracted venereal case except one, and that I was fortu- nate enough to cure after a period of six years ! These obstacles, however formidable they appear, should not prevent us from attempting to gain a perfect knowledge of the course of this disease; it cannot be expected to be obtained by individual observation, it will require the labour and attention of very many, each of whom, however, by contributing some new fact, or confirming one already known, may furnish the materials to supply this desideratum, and so complete the natural history of this disease. Should medical men generally look on this matter in the light that I do, I am confident that in a very few years we shall see this very desirable object accomplished, especially as so much valuable information must have been collected by those practitioners who have of late years devoted themselves to the non-mercurial treatment. Notwithstanding all these very serious obstacles, still we occa- sionally enjoy an opportunity of tracing some parts of the progress of this disease ; thus we sometimes meet with an individual who, either from absolute ignorance of the nature of the disease with which he is troubled, or from an indifference and recklessness of consequences, has totally neglected his disease from its very com- mencement, and only seeks for medical assistance after the se- condary symptoms have been established. If such a person be, from his situation in life, unable for a time to submit to active treatment, or if the state of his health render him unfit for it, we are afforded an opportunity of studying in part the uninterrupted progress of the disease. Under such circumstances I have observed, that when the local symptoms have become fully established, which is probably in two or three weeks after they make their appearance, they then become stationary, and the constitution is relieved from the febrile disturbance. In this quiescent state the symptoms may remain for about three weeks; they will then show a strong dispo- sition to amend, and sometimes they will proceed so far as to impress the surgeon with a hope, and the patient with a firm con- viction, that he is about to get perfectly well. But this illusion, having lasted for two or three weeks, is dispelled in general by a fresh attack of eruptive fever, and by an eruption or sore throat, although sometimes other symptoms (iritis for example) be added