234 DISEASES CLASS II. i. 5. 2. 



2. Syphilis. Venereal difeafe. The contagion (hews itfelf 

 in ulcers on the part firil inoculated, as chancres ; ulcers on the 

 tonfils fucceed, with eruption on the {kin, efpecially about the 

 roots of the hair ; afterwards on other parts of the {kin, termin^ 

 iating in dry fcabs ; and, laltly, with pain and fwelling of the 

 bones. 



: The corona veneris, or crown of Venus, confifts of the erup- 

 tions at the roots of the hair appearing molt round the forehead $ 

 which is occaftoned by this part being more expofed to the air ; 

 which we obferved, at the beginning of this genus, either produ- 

 ces or increales the virulence of contagious matter. But it is 

 difficult to conceive, from this hiftory, why the throat fhould be 

 firft afte&ed ; as it cannot be iuppofed, that the difeafe is fa 

 often taken by the faliva, like the fmail-pox, though this may 

 fometimes occur ; perhaps very often. The connection be- 

 tween the genitals in men and the throat, is treated of in Clafs 

 IV. i. 2, 7. Hydrophobia. 



M. M. A quarter of a grain of corrofive fublimate of mer- 

 cury, taken thrice a day for five or fix weeks, made into a pill 

 with bread-crumbs, or diflblved in a fpoonful of brandy and 

 water, is a Very efficacious and almoft certain cure. When it 

 does not fucceed, it is owing either to the drug being had, 

 or to its having precipitated from the brandy, or from its being 

 fpoiled in the pill by long keeping. Opium contributes much 

 to expedite the cure, both of the fimple gonorrhoea and of ve- 

 nereal ulcers, by increafing abforption both from the mucous 

 membrane and from the furface of ulcers. A quarter of a grain, 

 or half a grain, may l>e given with every dofe of the fublimate. 



Nitrous acid has been lately ftrongly recommended, by Mr. 

 Scott, in venereal cafes ; from an idea that the oxygen, which 

 it confiils of m part, is loofely combined, and may be feparable in 

 the animal fyftem ; and that it may be the oxygen, only, which 

 exifls Icofely in mercurial calces or oxydes, that acls fo fuccefs- 

 fully, when'mercurials are exhibited. Some fuccefsful exhibi- 

 tions of this acid in venereal cafes are publifhed ; the dofe is one 

 drachm and a half, or two drachms, of the ftrong nitric acid 

 mixed in two pounds of water, to be drunk daily at repeated in- 

 tervals. Mr. Scott has fince ufed the nitrous acid much diluted 

 with water externally as a warm bath, either partially or gener- 

 ally, with great fuccefs, at Bombay, in venereal cafes. See Ar-? 

 tide II. 2. 4. and IV. 2. 7. i. in the Materia Medica. 



It has been now ufed in this country with fuccefs by fome, 

 and without fuccefs by others, and may perhaps aflift the ufe of 

 mercurials as well as opium in the cure of veneral ulcers ; but 

 fhould not yet be folcly depended upcn. 



3. 



