Volume 1

Remarks on some of the opinions of the late Mr. John Hunter respecting the venereal disease; in a letter to Jeseph Adams / [Henry Clutterbuck].

Clutterbuck, Henry, 1767-1856

Date:: 1799

Credit: Remarks on some of the opinions of the late Mr. John Hunter respecting the venereal disease; in a letter to Jeseph Adams / [Henry Clutterbuck]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

20/74 (page 18)

$• \ ( 18 ) though the former cannot hence be denied to exist. The great frequency of the secondary symp¬ toms in the present day, and the numerous relapses which take place, are attributable, i& my opinion, to the slight and superficial man¬ ner in which it has been of late the fashion to employ mercury. I know not whether Mr. Hunter’s practice was of this kind, but I know that of many of his followers to be so ; and, un¬ doubtedly, it is a fair deduction from his prin¬ ciples. A convidlion that it is an inefficacious and a hurtful practice has been my induce¬ ment to offer you the present remarks. It is a practice undoubtedly well calculated to meet the taste and feelings of the patient; but his safety and security ought to outweigh every slighter consideration. Formerly the treat¬ ment of Lues Venerea was long-continued and severe, perhaps unnecessarily so; but, I be¬ lieve, the recurrence of the disease was compa¬ ratively less frequent.—Upon the whole, there¬ fore, I am at a loss to consider what has been termed disposition in any other light, than as the commencement of venereal action,, not yet fully evolved, nor arrived to such a pitch as to influence visibly the structure or functions$