Syphilis and local contagious disorders / by Berkeley Hill.

  • Hill, Berkeley, 1834-1892.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Syphilis and local contagious disorders / by Berkeley Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    CHAPTER V. VAGINITIS. GoNORRHCEA in woman consists of contagious purulent inflamma- tion of the vaginal mucous membrane and its continuations, with certain occasional complications of more distant regions. The disorder begins at the loAver part of the vagina, but rarely remains limited to that localit3\ The inflammation usually invades also the vulva, the uj)per part of the vagina, and the cervical portion of the uterus; it also frequently extends to the urethra, and sometimes to the bladder, or to the interior of the uterus, the Fallopian tubes, and the peritoneum. Though contagion with the discharge from urethritis in the male is the prevailing cause of acute vaginitis, it may arise from many other causes. Violent and repeated sexual intercourse, especially when in- dulged in about the menstrual period, often causes inflammation of the mucous membrane. Vaginitis is also sometimes caused by criminal assaults, and it may occur in newly-married women. The presence of foreign bodies, such as a sponge, or pessary, and strong injections, will excite vaginitis, but inflammation thus engendered subsides readily when the cause is removed; the acute vaginitis of contagion is more violent, and more prone to become chronic. Acute vaginitis, again, sometimes arises in the course of measles, small-pox, and other acute diseases, or after exposure to damp and cold. Chronic vaginal catarrh may be produced b}^ chlorosis, by congestion of the hsemorrhoidal and uterine vessels, and other conditions in weakly women. The inflammation of the vagina produced by the gonorrhoeal discharge is not clinically diflerent from that caused by any other irritant; hence the symptoms are merely those of vaginitis, at first in an acute form, and afterwards becoming chronic before it ceases altogether.