GONORRHE'A -[from Supplement), described also as Bmasnonunrsors by some writers, is the most common form of venereal disease. It has been known from very remote times; it is generally believed that the sanitary measures inculcated in the 15th chapter of Leviticus have reference to this disorder as occurring amongst the Jews; and it was described by the Greek and Homan physicians. It consists in an inflammation of the mucuous membrane of some part of the generative organs. producing a muco purulent or purulent discharge from the diseased surface. Hence itc name of gonorrhea, which is formed on the erroneous supposition that the discharge consists of the sper matic fluid, is unsuitable, and the attempt to substitute blennorrhagia, which signifies flow of mucous matter," has been made. Although it is termed a venereal disease, it is totally distinct from syphilis (q.v.) Although gonorrhea is, in the great majority of cases, the result of direct contagion from sexual intercourse with a person who is similarly affected, there is no doubt that a very similar urethral discharge may arise from constitutional and other causes irrespective of contagion, as in scrofulous, gouty, or rheumatic subjects. Moreover, it is certain that this disease in the male may proceed from intercourse with a woman in whom no morbid change of the mucous membrane can be detected by the speculum. •Ricord, a French physician of great authority in this department of medicine, lays down the proposition that "gonorrhea often arises from intercourse with women who have not bad the disease." Diday, another high authority, maintains " that from the very fact of a woman having a dis charge, no matter what its origin, she is liable to give is discharge to a man." English surgeons are gradually taking a similar view, and admit that gonorrhea may be the product of other causes than a specific poison. The fact of the disease being usually caused by impure intercourse is proof of the presence and action of the poison, but it is .no evidence of that poison being of a specific character; any poison capable of being generated by simple inflammation being probably sufficient to induce the disease.
• Men are so much more liable to contract this disease than women, that we shall con fine our remarks to gonorrhea in the male. The symptoms usually appear in from three'to five days after exposure to contagion. The patient feels an itching or tingling sensation at ,the extremity of the urethral passage. whose orifice has an abnormally florid appearance, and is usually closed by a viscid, colorless secretion. This premonitory stage may last for a day or two, when there is a swelling of the parts, and a thick cream like pus exudes from the urethra. The passage of the urine is accompanied by a smart ing or scalding sensation, and takes place with considerable difficulty, in a contracted or twisted stream. At night, a painful condition of the parts, known as chordee, and due to spasm of the muscular fibers of the urethra, is apt to come on. This stage may last, with slight variations, for. a space varying from one to three weeks, its length depending en the patient's mode of life. and the number of previous attacks, the first being always the worst, and each succeeding one being gradually milder. The disease having thus reached its height, gradually subsides; the various symptoms abate in severity, and after a period of uncertain length, the discharge either ceases or assumes an almost entirely mucous character. If it ceases, the patient may be regarded as cured; if the mucous discharge continue, it is known as plat; and it is only to this condition that the term blennorrhagia is truly applicable. This gleet often remains, in defiance of all treatment, for months, and its presence often preys very unnecessarily upon the patient's mind, so as to derange his health, and to suggest unnecessary fears regarding the loss of his virile powers. It is from. patients of this kind, who cannot be persuaded that the discharge is unaccompanied by any further mischief to themselves (further than possi ble annoyance arising from the fact that they should not marry so long as any discharge exists), and that it is sure in due time to cease, unless there is stricture or some other exciting cause, that advertising quacks draw their greatest profits.