More frequent than contagious conjunctivitis. Occurs in those who have affections of the joints in gonorrhoea Length of time the discharge remains contagious Infusoriæ, the trichonomas in the discharge, not peculiar to gonorrhoea 457 Page 93, foot note, transpose q and P in "symqtomatipues." Page 132, line 12, for "are" read "is." Also, line 15, the sentence be- Page 165, line 10 from foot, for "only" read "chiefly." Page 232, line 9, omit "to or." Page 266, last line, for "1866" read "1868." Page 311, line 9 from foot, for "20" read "50." Page 377, line 12, drop the s from "membranes." DIVISION I. INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. HISTORY Ancient; Hindoo, Greek, Latin, Chinese-In the Middle Ages, till the 15th century, Epidemic of 1494-Confusion of Syphilis with other Diseases-Immemorial antiquity of Syphilis-Distinction between Venereal Diseases-Unrecognised forms of Syphilis, Yaws, Sibbens, Scherlievo, and others-Geographical Distribution-Summary. VENEREAL diseases are the contagious disorders propagated from one person to another, generally during sexual intercourse, and exceptionally, by other means of close contact between individuals. There are three principal complaints-gonorrhoea, chancre, and syphilis. Besides these, some less characteristic affections of the generative organs, depending on excessive or impure sexual intercourse, will receive a notice in these pages. No question in the history of medicine has been more keenly debated, than the time at which one venereal disease, syphilis, first appeared. The descriptions of these affections left to us by the ancients, are only sufficient to satisfy us that they were familiar with ulcers, and other affections of the genitals, communicated by sexual intercourse, though they make it highly probable that syphilis also was endemic at the time they wrote. In describing the shameful maladies, ancient writers do not distinctly attribute to ulcers B of the pudenda power to produce a sequence of general bodily disease. For this reason, syphilis was believed until recently, to have originated in the Old World about the time it was first methodically described, namely, on Columbus's return from his discovery of the New World, in 1495. The persistence of this belief is mainly due to Astruc, who, in the middle of the eighteenth century, ransacked ancient medical literature for his History of Syphilis, in which he endeavoured to prove that a constitutional disease like that we recognise as syphilis, did not exist earlier than 1492-5, when a plague raged throughout Europe, which he believed to be syphilis, reaping its first harvest. But efforts have been made recently to controvert this theory, more especially by Casenave,1 Follin,2 and Lancereaux. These writers enter into the question at some length, and adduce not only quotations from the ancient authors to whom Astruc had recourse, but also from others of which he was ignorant, to support their opinion, that syphilis is of great antiquity. They review the various writers of antiquity-medical, historical, poetic, and obscene-who allude to affections of the genital organs. In the latter class, of course, research has been most abundantly rewarded with the discovery of new matter. In order to make as complete a survey as possible, Follin and Lancereaux divide the historical records into three divisions: first, those of antiquity; second, those of the middle ages; and, third, those of the period reaching from the end of the fifteenth century to the present time; divisions that may be usefully retained. In following this arrangement, we must not expect to find in the few medical books of antiquity a systematic descrip 1 Traité des Maladies de la Peau. 1843. 2 Pathologie Externe, tome i. 1862. 3 Traité Historique et Pratique de la Syphilis. 1866. Lancereaux's work contains the most complete bibliographical record that has appeared on this subject in any language. |