806 OBSERVATIONS ON CASES OF LEUCORRHfEA, 
The abnormal secretion from the vaginal mucous glands is 
sometimes large, and the lining membrane of the passage, in 
such cases, becomes much discoloured and irritable; at times 
the superincumbent epithelia are detached and thrown off 
with the discharge, where they are easily discovered. 
It is very necessary not to confound this form of leucor- 
rhoea with “ bull-burnt or, as some writers style it, 
gonorrhoea. In the latter disease, however, we have a most 
characteristic eruption of minute pustules, which ought, on 
inspection, at once to settle the matter. 
The second form of the disease, namely, that affecting both 
the cervix uteri and vagina, is most common. It is accom¬ 
panied with, or, more properly speaking, it consists of a more 
or less continuous and pretty profuse white curdy or yellow’ 
creamy looking discharge. The cause of this white, curdy, 
or yellow creamy appearance of the discharge is not alto¬ 
gether satisfactorily to be accounted for. The yellow creamy 
discharge will generally be found to be composed more or 
less of pus, while the white curdy discharge may owe its 
origin partly to the action of the acid secretion of the vaginal 
walls on the profuse and mostly alkaline production of the 
cervical glands. The character of the discharge will, how¬ 
ever, depend much on the cause of the disorder. 
I am inclined to think that this form of leucorrhoea almost 
always originates in the cervix uteri, and that it is communi¬ 
cated to the vagina by the continual irritation of the dis¬ 
charge through the passage, so that in due time it becomes 
truly cervico-vaginal. The discharge in this cervico-vaginal 
leucorrhoea may, however, be either continuous or merely 
occasional. 
When continuous it will he found that the os uteri is in 
a relaxed state, thus allowing the steady escape of the leu- 
corrhoeal productions of the cervix. On the other hand, if 
the discharge in cervico-vaginal leucorrhoea takes place only 
occasionally, it will be found that either the os uteri or the 
external part of the vaginal passage immediately behind the 
meatus urinarius (i. e. the ostium vaginrn) becomes at times 
contracted and closed up, and thus for a time causes the re¬ 
tention of the diseased productions, i. e. the leucorrhoeal dis¬ 
charge of either of these parts. The occasional relaxing of 
these contractions will at once produce a leucorrhoeal “ flow.” 1 
Uterine leucorrhoea, the third form of this disease, and which 
is generally in the lower animals entirely restricted to the 
uterus, is the most prominent, most extensive, and most 
serious of the whole. I have seldom met with an instance 
where the discharge was otherwise than occasional, and this 
