Gonorrhoea and urethritis / by G. Frank Lydston.

Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gonorrhoea and urethritis / by G. Frank Lydston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The generic term urethritis is accurate as applied to the affection in the male, inasmuch as it not only im- plies an inflammation of the urethral mucous mem- brane, but is sufficiently comprehensive to embrace all the varying forms of the disease, whatever their origin. It is necessary to use the term gonorrhoea from time to time in the discussion of the subject, in deference to common usage and for the sake of lucidity. Urethritis is a very ancient as well as a very prev- alent disease. It has been claimed that gonorrhoea was described in the writings of a celebrated Emperor of China fully 5,000 years ago. It was known among the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was certainly quite a familiar affection in the time of the patriarch Moses, and from all historical accounts his people were peculiarly subject to it, although it must be con- fessed that the Jew of the present day is less fre- quently affected by venereal diseases than almost any other race; this tends to show that, whatever heretical exceptions may be taken to the doctrines of the ancient patriarch, we are perforce compelled to ac- knowledge that he was certainly an excellent, physi- cian, and, moreover, an excellent judge of human nature. The principles of sanitation laid down to the Hebrews in the 15th chapter of Leviticus in all prob- ability refer to this disease. I may say in this connection, that this particular chapter of the Bible is