always serious. In the large proportion of cases they
are made permanent invalids, no longer able to walk freely, but
compelled to pass their lives in a reclining position until worn out
by suffering, which can only be relieved by the surgical removal of
their maternal organs. It is estimated that from fifty to sixty per
cent of all operations performed on the maternal organs of women are
due to disease caused by gonorrheal inflammation.
=Treatment.=--Rest in bed, the use of injections of hot water,
medicated with various astringents, by means of a fountain syringe in
the front passage three times daily, and the same remedies and bath
recommended above, with hot sitz baths, will usually relieve the
distress. In view of the serious character of this affection in women
and its unfortunate results when not properly treated, it is important
that they should have the benefit of prompt and skillful treatment by
a physician. Otherwise, the health and life of the patient may be
seriously compromised.
The social danger of gonorrhea introduced after marriage is not
limited to the risks to the health of the woman. When a woman thus
infected bears a child the contagion of the disease may be conveyed to
the eyes of the child in the process of birth. Gonorrheal pus is the
most virulent of all poisons. A single drop of the pus transferred to
the eye may destroy this organ in from twenty-four to forty-eight
hours. It is estimated that from seventy-five to eighty per cent of
all babies blinded at birth have suffered from this cause, while from
twenty to thirty per cent of blindness from all causes is due to
gonorrhea. While the horrors of this disease in the newborn have been
mitigated by what is called the Crede method (instillation of nitrate
of silver solution in the eye immediately after birth), it still
remains one of the most common factors in the causation of blindness.
Another social danger is caused by the pus being conveyed to the
genital parts of female children, either at birth or by some object
upon which it has been accidentally deposited, such as clothes,
sponges, diapers, etc. These cases are very common in babies'
hospitals and institutions for the care of children. Quite a number of
epidemics have been traced to this cause. The disease occurring in
children is exceedingly difficult of cure and is often followed by
impairment in the development of their maternal organs. Much of the
ill health of young girls from di
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