OF THE VIRULENT GONORRHOEA. 331

To inumerate all its different symptoms, however, and to trace thisdisease minutely through its various stages, would require a much la-gerspace than falls to this part of my subject; I shall therefore confine mvobservations chiefly to circumstances of importance, omitting such aaare either trifling, or which occur but seldom.

OF THE VIRULENT GONORRHOEA

The virulent gonorrhoea is an involuntary discharge of infectious mat-ter from the parts of generation of either sex. It generally makes itsappearance within eight or ten days after the infection has been received;sometimes indeed it appears in two or three days, and at other times notbefore the end of four or five weeks. Previous to the discharge the pa-tient feels an itching, with a small degree of pain in the genitals. After-wards a thin glary matter begins to distil from the urinary passage, whichstains the linen, and occasions a small degree of titillation, particularlyat the time of making water; this gradually increasing, arises at lengthto a degree of heat and pain, which are chiefly perceived about the ex-tremity of the urinary passage, where a slight degree of redness and in-flammation likewise begins to appear.

As the disorder advances, the pain, heat of the urine, and running,increase, while fresh symptoms daily ensue. In men, the erections be-come painful and involuntary, and are more frequent and lasting thenwhen natural. This symptom is most troublesome when the patient iswarm in bed. The pain, which was at first only perceived towards theextremity, now begins to reach all up the urinary passage, and is mostintense just after the patient has done making water. The runninggradually recedes from the colour of seed, grows yellow, and at lengthputs on the appearance of mucus.

When the disorder has arrived at its height, all the symptoms are moreintense; the heat of urine is so great, that the patient dreads the makingwater; and though he feels a constant inclination this way, yet it isrendered with the greatest difficulty, and often only by drops: the in-voluntary erections now become extremely painful and frequent; thereis also a pain, heat, and sense of fulness about the seat, and the runningis plentiful and sharp, of a brown, greenish, and sometimes of a bloodycolour.

By a proper treatment, the violence of the symptoms gradually abates;the heat of urine goes off; the involuntary and painful erections, and theheat and pain about the seat, become easier; the running also graduallydecreases, grows whiter and thicker, till at last it entirely disappears.

By attending to these symptoms, the gonorrhoea may be generally dis-tinguished from any other disease. There are however some few dis-orders for which it may be mistaken, as an ulcer in the kidneys orbladder, and the flour albus or whites in women. _ But in the formerof these the matter comes away only with the urine, or when thesphincter of the bladder is open; whereas in a gonorrhoea the dischargeis constant. The latter is more difficult to distinguish, and must beknown chi'*fly from its effects, as pain, and its po»ver to communicatethe infection.

REGIMEN.------When a perst.n has reason to suspect that he has