Note 12 — THE VENEREAL DISEASE.

I have not only seen a recent infection carried off in a few days by means of cleanliness, viz., bathing, fomentations, injections, &c., but have likewise found it of the greatest advantage in the more advanced stages of the disease. Of this I had lately a very remarkable instance in a man whose penis was almost wholly consumed by venereal ulcers; the matter had been allowed to continue on the sores without any care having been taken to clean them, till, notwithstanding the use of mercury and other medicines, it had produced the effects mentioned. I ordered warm milk and water to be injected three or four times a day into all the sinuous ulcers, in order to wash out the matter; after which they were stuffed with dry lint to absorb the fresh matter as it was generated. The patient at the same time took every day half a grain of the corrosive sublimate of mercury, dissolved in an ounce of brandy, and drank an English quart of the decoction of sarsaparilla. By this treatment, in about six weeks, he was perfectly cured; and, what was very remarkable, a part of the penis was actually regenerated.

Dr. Gilchrist has given an account of a species of the lues venerea which prevails in the west of Scotland, to which the natives give the name of Sibbins or Sivvins. The doctor observes, that the spreading of this disease is chiefly owing to a neglect of cleanliness, and seems to think, that by due attention to this virtue, it might be extirpated. The treatment of this disease is similar to that of a confirmed lues or pox. The yaws, a disease which is now very common both in America and the West India Islands, may also be cured in the same manner.