ort to the advertising quack, the
druggist's clerk, or the prescription furnished by an obliging friend.
Skillful treatment, resulting in a complete radical cure, may save him
much suffering from avoidable complications and months or years of
chronic trouble.
At the same time the first medicines advised are stopped and oleoresin
of cubebs, five grains, or copaiba balsam, ten grains--or both
together--are to be taken three times daily after meals, in capsules,
for several weeks, unless they disturb the digestion too much. A
suspensory bandage should be worn throughout the continuance of the
disease. The approach of the cure of the disease is marked by a
diminution in the quantity and a change in the character of the
discharge, which becomes thinner and less purulent and reduced to
merely a drop in the passage in the early morning, but this may
continue for a great while. Chronic discharge of this kind and the
complications cannot be treated properly by the patient, but require
skilled medical care.
In this connection it may be said that most patients have an idea that
the subsidence or disappearance of the discharge is an evidence of the
cure of the disease. Experience shows that the disease may lapse into
a latent or chronic form and remain quiescent, without visible
symptoms, during a prolonged period, while susceptible of being
revived under the influence of alcoholic drinks or sexual intercourse.
It is important that treatment should be continued until all disease
germs are destroyed, which can only be determined by an examination of
the secretions from the urethra under the microscope.
The more common complications of gonorrhea are inflammation of the
glands in the groin (bubo), acute inflammation of the prostate glands
and bladder, of the seminal vesicles, or of the testicles. The latter
complication is a most common cause of sterility in men. Formerly it
was thought that gonorrhea was a local inflammation confined to the
urinary canal and neighboring parts, but advances in our knowledge
have shown that the germs may be taken up into the general circulation
and affect any part of the body, such as the muscles, joints, heart,
lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, etc., with results always serious and
often fatal to life. One of the most common complications is
gonorrheal arthritis, which may affect one or several joints and
result in stiffness or complete loss of movement of the affected
joint, with more or less def
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