Gonorrhea

“ When a man has gonorrhea he [161] knows it immediately; first, because the discharge tells him that there is something the matter with him, for a man is not used to having any discharge from the urethra unless there is something the matter with him. Second, the urine becomes at once burning and painful. In women the urethra is a separate canal from the vagina, and the urethra is very frequently not affected in gonorrhea. The infection generally starts in the cervix, and the disease may last for considerable time before the woman becomes aware of it. ”

“ As to gonorrhea in women, that depends to a great extent upon the virulence of the disease and the promptness with which treatment is instituted. If the gonorrhea is limited only to the cervix, the vulva and the urethra, then prompt treatment will usually bring about a cure in a comparatively short time. But if the gonorrheal inflammation has extended to the body of the uterus, or still worse, to the tubes, then the treatment may become a very tedious one, and some cases may not be curable without an operation. ”

“ The picture usually painted of the hopelessness of gonorrhea and syphilis is too sombre, too black, and, contrary to the assertions made by laymen and laywomen and physicians who do not specialize in the treatment of venereal disease, I wish to make the statement that every case of gonorrhea in man, without any exception, if properly treated, can be perfectly cured, as far as practical purposes are concerned. ”

“ One attack of gonorrhea in no way protects against a second infection, but rather predisposes to it, and when this disease becomes chronic exacerbations or relapses of the acute stage often occur without fresh infection.
In women the results of gonorrhea are, if possible, still worse than in men, because it is more difficult to cure. A prostitute affected with gonorrhea may infect an enormous number of men, and in this case medical inspection of brothels is no guarantee. ”

“ Gonorrhea in women may attack any part of the genito-urinary tract. It rarely attacks a number of structures at one time, but it usually becomes localized in one 451 or two parts, such as the urethra, the glands of the vestibule, the vulvo-vaginal glands, the vaginal fornices, or the cervix uteri, and runs a subacute course, and may remain quiescent for a long period. It may in time disappear spontaneously, or it may be excited into activity by a variety of causes, such as traumatism, unusual coitus, labor, or miscarriage. ”

“ We must also remember that gonorrhea is less painful in woman than in man, and that, even in the latter, it ceases to be painful when it becomes chronic. We may add that the microbes (the gonococci) are very difficult to reach in all the recesses of the mucous membrane of the sexual organs in which they are hidden, and that in women they penetrate as far as the womb, when a cure becomes almost impossible. ”

“ Gonorrhea.—This is incomparably more serious than chancroid. This disease is very prevalent among the incontinent, and it is claimed by some specialists in this field that from sixty to seventy-five per cent. of men have had gonorrhea before the age of thirty.
It is a contagious disease, acquired usually during intercourse, though the individual may become infected innocently from water closets, bath tubs, etc.
To become infected it is not necessary that there be an abrasion of the mucous membrane. ”

“ Gonorrhea of the cervix usually begins in a subacute or an insidious manner. It is usually unattended by any general or 452 local symptoms sufficiently marked to attract attention. If the woman had been free from a leucorrheal discharge, she may observe a muco-purulent secretion caused by the gonorrhea. If she had a leucorrhea, the alteration in the character and amount of the discharge is usually not sufficient to attract her attention. In some cases the discharge becomes more purulent in character; in others there is no alteration perceptible to the naked eye. ”

“ The three so-called venereal diseases are syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid or soft ulcer. Gonorrhea is the commonest of the three, and is an exceedingly prevalent disease. In man its first symptom is a discharge of pus from the canal through which the urine passes. Its later stages may involve the bladder, the testicles, and other important glands. It may also produce crippling forms of rheumatism, and affect the heart. Gonorrhea may recur, become latent, and persist for years, doing slow, insidious damage. ”

“ Treatment of all deep chronic complications of Gonorrhea takes usually from two to six months, and sometimes longer if the case is neglected. Patience and persistence in treatment is an absolutely indispensable condition for success, and patients who take treatment for a while and then drop it because, in their opinion, their case is incurable are throwing away their only 106chance of cure. The fact of the matter is that chronic Gonorrhea, if treated properly and patiently, can be considered a thoroughly curable disease. ”

“ This is the course of a somewhat normal case of Gonorrhea, 86with smooth, regular development and without any complications. A man must consider himself very lucky if he recovers from Gonorrhea in five to six weeks completely. Only a small minority of all Gonorrhea cases run so smoothly, probably not more than 25 to 30 per cent. The majority of the cases, sometimes in spite of the best treatment and the best care, develop different complications, which increase the duration of the disease for a much longer period. ”

“ It is a wellestablished 81opinion among the medical scientists at the present time that the total amount of damage and suffering to individuals and to society at large produced by gonorrhea falls not far below that produced by Syphilis, which is justly known as a black scourge of humanity. Gonorrhea is considered now a very serious disease, requiring, for a complete and permanent recovery, long and painstaking treatment. The complications of gonorrhea are numerous and far-reaching. ”

“ The latter complication is a most common cause of sterility in men. Formerly it was thought that gonorrhea was a local inflammation confined to the urinary canal and neighboring parts, but advances in our knowledge have shown that the germs may be taken up into the general circulation and affect any part of the body, such as the muscles, joints, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, etc., with results always serious and often fatal to life. ”

“ Often the inflammation extends, becomes chronic and attacks other organs. This chronic gonorrhea often causes permanent contraction of the urethra, which leads to the painful retention of urine, catarrh of the bladder, and stone. Chronic gonorrhea, too, often ends in death, especially if the kidneys are attacked. A cured case of gonorrhea does not mean immunity from further attacks. New infections are all the more easily acquired. Gonorrhea has even more dangerous consequences in women than in men. ”

“ Gonorrhea Not Hereditary. Then, gonorrhea is not a hereditary disease. Nobody ever inherits gonorrhea. A child may be born with a gonorrheal inflammation of the eyes (ophthalmia neonatorum) , but this inflammation is not inherited; it can only be acquired if the mother is suffering with gonorrhea while the child is being born: some of the pus in the mother's birth canal gets into the child's eyes while it passes through the uterus and vagina. This is not heredity; this is simple infection, and can be avoided by keeping the mother's birth canal clean by antiseptic douches before childbirth. ”

“ It is in these tissues that the germ of gonorrhea finds lodgment, and once there its development is hard to interrupt. Although the growth of the gonorrheal germ produces acute symptoms, such as discharge and pain, these pass off under treatment in a few weeks. Unfortunately the disease is far from cured, for the microbe has found its natural habitat in the inter-cellular structure of the genital mucus, from which it cannot readily be dislodged, and from which it may invade other tissues. ”

“ Acute deep Gonorrhea, under intelligent care, subsides and quiets down in two to three weeks, but for a complete cure it takes from six to eight weeks more, so that all together these cases take from two to three months. The importance of Acute Deep Gonorrhea lies mainly in the fact that it indicates that Gonorrhea Germs have penetrated deep into the system, opening a gateway for other deep and serious complications. ”

“ The difficulty of proving the presence of gonorrhea in women is often very great. As has been said, the disease may begin and may exist for a long time without attracting the attention of the woman. She often pays no attention to a slight burning or tickling sensation in the urethra, which passes off in a few days. She may have had a leucorrheal discharge for a long time, and she may fail to notice any slight alteration in its character or quantity that may have been caused by gonorrhea. ”

“ No statistics have been kept in this country, but reliable physicians claim that there must be as many as 15,000. What right has a young man to engage in a sin that will cause his wife and child a lifetime of suffering?
Syphilis is by no means as common as gonorrhea, there being only eight to eighteen per cent. of the young men who contract this disease as compared with eighty per cent. who contract the other. The germs that produce gonorrhea have only to come in contact with the mucous membrane for infection to follow. ”

“ One of the most distressing features of chronic Gonorrhea prostatitis is its powerful, depressing influence on the patient’s spirit and mentality. No other complication of Gonorrhea wears down a man’s courage, self-assertiveness, and joy of life, none of them makes a patient so disheartened, worried, and despairing of recovery as does chronic Prostatitis. Gonorrheal Prostatitis, under the best treatment, takes usually several months for a complete cure, and the task to keep up a 94patient’s courage and confidence in his recovery taxes as much the physician’s skill as the treatment itself. ”

“ Otherwise, the health and life of the patient may be seriously compromised.
The social danger of gonorrhea introduced after marriage is not limited to the risks to the health of the woman. When a woman thus infected bears a child the contagion of the disease may be conveyed to the eyes of the child in the process of birth. Gonorrheal pus is the most virulent of all poisons. A single drop of the pus transferred to the eye may destroy this organ in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. ”

“ The popular fear of a discharge is based on the ignorance of the fact that the discharge in Gonorrhea, like many other symptoms, such as fever, cough, vomiting, etc., in other diseases, are not harmful by themselves, and that in a certain stage of the disease they serve a useful purpose of helping the human body to get rid of the different poisons and disease-producing germs. ”

“ Gonorrhea. Gonorrhea, commonly termed a clap, is unquestionably the most widespread of venereal diseases. So common it is, so insidious and deceiving in its appearance, that most men fail to realize its serious and often dangerous nature and regard it as a trifling affection. ”

“ I have no intention of underrating the danger to the woman of coitus with a man who is not entirely cured of a gonorrhea or a gleet. The lives of a great many women have been ruined by marriage with incompletely cured gonorrheal husbands, and but very few men in such a condition would contemplate marriage if they were aware of the danger to the woman that results from such an act. But, on the other hand, men who are at all careful of themselves are, without doubt, usually completely cured of gonorrhea ”

“ It stands to reason that any sexual excitement or stimulation is extremely harmful and aggravates the condition immensely. Absolute cleanliness must be insisted upon, and the patient must be careful not to spread the disease by soiling with gonorrheal discharge different articles of personal use that may be used by others. He must be careful also not to carry over a gonorrheal poison with the soiled fingers into his own eyes, as gonorrhea of the eye is a most dangerous disease that often leads to complete blindness. ”

“ Many estimate that over half of the entire male population have had gonorrhea. The principal reason for this alarming distribution among all classes of these infections and their steady increase is ignorance and misunderstanding of physiological facts, particularly the viciously false teaching of the street corner that sexual activity is a physiological necessity. ”

“ Only a Genito-Urinary specialist, who sees how many of these cases are mistreated or 82untreated because they are regarded by the patients as trifling and not worthy of any particular attention, who sees how these cases, once the sickness takes deep roots in the body, drag on for months and months in spite of the best treatment; only a physician can realize to the full extent how seriously and carefully each case of Gonorrheal infection must be handled. The respect and fear of Gonorrhea comes to young men only after a sad and distressing experience as an afterthought. ”

“ We shall proceed now to describe briefly the general principles and methods of the treatment of Gonorrhea and its complications, as we believe that the intelligent understanding of these methods will help men afflicted with Gonorrhea to avoid blunders of self-doctoring and exploitation by ignorant impostors and unscrupulous medical quacks. ”