On the diseases of women : including the diseases of pregnancy and childbed / by Fleetwood Churchill ; a new American edition, revised by the author, with notes and additions by D. Francis Condie.

  • Churchill, Fleetwood, 1808-1878.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the diseases of women : including the diseases of pregnancy and childbed / by Fleetwood Churchill ; a new American edition, revised by the author, with notes and additions by D. Francis Condie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    generally. In some cases it has been found of a brownish color, and acrid, excoriating the edges of the vulva.1 There is very little increase of heat, and seldom any pain or tender- ness. I have never known the inguinal glands to be affected. If the discharge be very profuse, considerable weakness may be in- duced, with great weariness after exertion. There is generally some complaint of aching in the back and loins, and after the discharge has continued long, dyspeptic symptoms appear. A question has been debated as to whether leucorrhceal discharges (either uterine or vaginal), not venereal, can give rise to gonorrhoea and sores in the male, and opposite opinions have been maintained. John Hunter, a very high authority, observes, Such cases, as far as I have seen, have only been in the form of gonorrhoea; they have not produced sores in the parts,vnor, so far as I know, do they even produce consti- tutional diseases. Other writers have, however, maintained the con- trary, and the ' question is by no means easy of solution. It would appear, at least, that the leucorrhceal discharge may excite considerable irritation in the mucous membrane of the urethra of the male. I have seen several cases of a thin mucous discharge in males, who positively denied having had, for some years previously, intercourse with any other females than their wives. The wives denied most strenuously the accusation of incontinence, and certainly exhibited no symptom what- ever of a gonorrhoeal character. In the Lancet for July 9, 1836 (vol. ii. p. 492), there are some cases related by Mr. Eagle, of sores on the penis, produced by connection with females laboring under leucorrhoea only. I may quote one. Obs. 5. A married gentleman, ?et. 33, of sedentary habits, is frequently the subject of indolent ulcers on the prepuce, which are at times long in healing, if no mercurial be used. His wife is healthy in appearance, although the subject of leucorrhoea. There are other similar cases re- lated, and some which show that sores maybe caused by connection during menstruation. The conclusions Mr. Eagle draws are: First, that a modest female laboring under leucorrhoea may inflict both a gonorrhoea and sores ; secondly, that, as the more severe the cause the more intense the effect, it follows; thirdly, and principally, that the same discharge, occurring in a female, under the continued and combined excitement of venery and drink, would possess so much the more acrimony that it would produce venereal gonorrhoea or true chancre. Of course, these cases do not prove the point, as so much depends upon the veracity of both parties, who may be supposed to have an interest in concealing the truth. Whether vaginal or uterine leucorrhoea would be more likely to excite such an irritation in the male organs, I am unable to say. 62. Diagnosis.—It maybe distinguished: 1. From the acute stage of gonorrhoea, by there being less local irritation, by the discharge being colorless or whitish, by the absence of scalding on passing urine, and of the discharge from the urethra. 2. From uterine leucorrhoea, by the discharge being unconnected 1 Siebold's Frauenzimmerkranklieiten, vol. i. p. 579.