Long Island College Hospital - Lichonian Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 57 text:

C YI! ' l .ul 1 l H' .1 1 l-N lvl lim 1 if la l l l il w lx ii lil W 155. lil lil liil '57, V wwf 3 V uf 4 li il will Hi keel - in i i i Hi Fi' PM H1 alll s 9 :fl ,425 .4?i'f'l E' E?-. , Vg.2ag,Qf',1?A LQ- lt gg. f 1 '- IL ff.-ilyfiii' in 1 ff4',..J l.lCHONilXli ? 'Fifi 1, ., we rfaiifu iiiita 1 we ' me ----WA 7 -- --.asf HENRY H. IVIORTON Cliniml Professor of Gcnito-Urizzary Diseases and Syphilis M.D., The Long Island College Hospital, 18823 Interne, St. Peters Hospital and New Haven Hospitalg Post Graduate Study at Prague. Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Paris. Member Committee on Venereal Diseases in oH'ice of Surgeon-General, U. S. A. Genito-Urinary Surgeon, L. I. C. H.g Consultant in Genito-Urinary Diseases, Kings County, Flushing, Sea View, Victory Memorial and Beth Israel CNewark, N. JJ Hospitals. Member of American Genito-Urinary Association and American Urological Association. Fellow American College of Surgeons, Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine: Member Kings County Medical Society. Author of -Genito-Urinary Diseases and Syphilis, 4-th Edition and numerous papers pub- lished in Journals. Page fifty-Iwo

Page 56 text:

ana-rfgfgf 95175 PROFESSOR GOETSCH and his Secfiun in Surgw-y - I I -

Page 58 text:

Page --.. - .ms ,..t,,,.,- - ,-.,..t,,...- ----- ---.--,,,--- -- -------fee- P- gg5m.r:sif:'f':.t:::..-,,tg:r.,:-es':te',.. ,,,tg,E,..-eg,,.t-m3F3.f3g::,,.i1fe::rg:f:- , 4 :::t1:e:..zg:ga-,, Cfieniin - lirinarg Biaraara. mf. N considering the history of gonorrhea, it may be stated that inflammations of the urethra are as o-ld as the human race-itself, for we find that Moses, ,Mx i in Leviticus III, describes the disease and gives sanitary and police regula- : gilXC L tions for its control. A X' In 300 B, C., Hippocrates described the disease under the name of strangury, and after making dissections of the urethra, attributed the discharge to tubercles and fleshy proliferations in the canal. He states in his books that those suffer- ing from tubercles and carnosities in their pipe will get rid of the disease by means of the suppuration and How of pus. Aristotle, Plato and Seneca allude to gonorrhea in their writings, and Epicurus suffered so much from stricture and retention of urine that he committed suicide to end the suffering from an attack of retention of urine which had lasted fourteen days. Galen first gave to the disease the name of gonorrhea, believing the discharge to be an involuntary loss, of semen without erection. ln the Middle Ages the disease was described and treated by Italian, French and Moorish physicians, and it was well understood that the disease was contracted through sexual intercourse with unclean women. A truer knowledge of the pathology of inflammations of the urethra was gained through the work of Morgagni. He demonstrated by dissections that the discharge was not caused by ulcerations of the urethra, and he proved the error of Galen's view by showing that the discharge originated from the urethral mucous membrane, and not from the seminal vesicles. He also discovered the lacunae of Morgagni, and indi- cated their importance in cases of chronic gonorrhea. Before the advent of syphilis, gonorrhea was held to be a separate and distinct entity, but in the fifteenth century syphilis appeared in Europe and spread widely and rapidly as an epidemic. This new venereal disease excited so much attention that the study of gonorrhea fell into abeyance, and soon all the venereal diseases became con- fused together and were regarded as different manisfestations of one and the same malady. This period of confusion lasted for two hundred years and would have been cleared up sooner but for the unfortunate and misleading experiment of John Hunter. In order to settle the doubt as to the unity of gonorrhea and syphilis, Hunter inocu- lated himself with a purulent discharge from the urethra of a patient. In the course of time this inoculation experiment was followed by secondaries, namely, an ulcer on the tonsil and a copper-colored pustular eruption on the skin, and from this single experiment Hunter, who was temperamentally quick in arriving at conclusions, drew the inference that gonorrheal pus may produce a chancre and syphilis. In the light of our present day knowledge, it is, of course, obvious that Hunter inoculated himself with pus produced from a chancre concealed in the urethra. In spite of this unfortunate experiment of Hunter's, there were a few physicians, notable among whom was Benjamin Bell, who maintained that gonorrhea and syphilis were distinct diseases, but the erroneous impression that they were one and the same disease, lasted until 1831, when Ricord made 667 inoculations and showed conclusively that gonorrhea and syphilis were two separate and distinct diseases. Ricord's knowl- edge of the causative factor of gonorrhea was uncertain, and he believed that inflam- mation of the urethra was brought about by various indefinite causes. It was not until the microscopic technique of studying bacteria was perfected that the existing cause of gonorrhea was found. fifty-ilirec 'ill in iii il in ' will iii! ia iii, wtf: WH' iii lil iii 5 il bi iii' lf H abil ,IAM ri iii itil iii ll ff M- itll wifi, :rife ,.,413rf,'f4Zxh . ,..,,. N, ., , . 5 ,wr '..gw,Q,. H:-,X M L B an .ily .Qigli ' ' iicaoiiiauti . gigiiqg Z:..:liI,t,ii.lN itiriii. ilrff' 'EQ ii-rf QU! at view . ffl? Q27 -it .