6'44 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



tain mercury entirely in a liquid form, and avoid those which 

 may deposite an acrid powder in the urethra. That which I 

 have found most useful is a solution of the corrosive sublimate 

 in water ; so much diluted as not to occasion any violent smart- 

 ing, but not so much diluted as to give no smarting at all. It 

 is scarce necessary to add, that when there is reason to suspect 

 there are ulcerations already formed in the urethra, mercurial 

 injections are not only proper, but the only effectual remedy 

 that can be employed. 



" The pathology of gleets in different cases is not so well as- 

 certained as to teach me to adapt a proper remedy to each ; but 

 there is a case in which I have found the disease cured by in- 

 ducing some degree of inflammation upon the urethra ; and I 

 am persuaded, that turpentine, or what is much the same, the 

 balsam copaivae operates only in this manner ; for I have had 

 some instances of both turpentine and balsam copaivae producing 

 a manifest inflammation in the urethra to a degree of occasion- 

 ing a suppression of the urine ; but at the same time, when 

 these effects went off, a gleet which had subsisted for some time 

 before, was entirely cured. 



" I have been frequently disappointed of the effects of balsam 

 copaivae, perhaps from my mistaking the nature of the case ; 

 but I believe frequently from its-'Jbeing taken in too small quan- 

 tity, the patient's stomach often refusing to admit of a larger. 

 I have sometimes had success with it, but have frequently found 

 it too irritating, and very hurtful. Wherever I could suspect 

 ulceration in the urinary passages, there it was especially hurt- 

 M.M.M. 



MDCCLXXVIII. With regard to the cure~of gonorrhea, I 

 have only one other remark to offer. As most of the symptoms 

 arise from the irritation of a stimulus applied, the effects of this 

 irritation may be often lessened by diminishing the irritability 

 of the system ; and it is well known, that the most certain means- 

 of accomplishing this is by employing opium. For that reason, 

 I consider the practice both of applying opium directly to the 

 urethra, and of exhibiting it by the mouth, to be extremely use- 

 ful in most cases of gonorrhoea. 



MDCCLXXIX. After thus offering some remarks with re- 

 spect to gonorrhoea in general, I might proceed to consider par- 



