A private treatise on venereal disease, in two parts : the first on gonorrhea--vulgarly called clap, the second on venereal, properly so called : adapted to the use of every one, but more especially designed for those who are delicately circumstanced and require a private as well as a speedy cure / by Joseph Ralph.

  • Ralph, Joseph (Joseph E.)
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A private treatise on venereal disease, in two parts : the first on gonorrhea--vulgarly called clap, the second on venereal, properly so called : adapted to the use of every one, but more especially designed for those who are delicately circumstanced and require a private as well as a speedy cure / by Joseph Ralph. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    inflammation, which a full and irritable constitution or irregularity of habits gives rise to. The struc- ture of the skin which covers the head of the penis, (the prepuce,) is very loose and cellular, so that when the inflammation happens to be high, this structure fills with the thin and colorless part of the blood and causes it to swell. Sometimes the skin is swollen amazingly, and looks of a bluish white, being half transparent, and is very apt to create alarm. Indeed, there is some- times reason for alarm, for when this swelling is considerable the skin cannot be pushed back over the penis, or, if pushed back, it cannot be brought forward again, so as to cover it. Now, there is not so much danger in this swelling itself, as in the consequences of it; for if the skin cannot be push- ed back, the matter under it accumulates and be- comes acrid and irritating, and you cannot avail yourself of cleanliness, which is always of import- ance. And on the other hand, if you cannot bring the prepuce forward, it produces danger by acting as though a string were tied around the head of the penis, preventing the return of the blood, so that it swells prodigiously,—looks blackish,—and some- times even mortifies and comes away. This, how- ever, can always be prevented by proper manage- ment, which will be shown, as I have already said, in the chapter on the treatment and cure of Gon- orrheea.