A discharge of mucus, if not connected with a venereal taint, even when accompanied with inflammation, is not infectious; and the common gleet, when inflammation is secondarily excited, by high living or violent exercise, is equally innocent. Yet when it has preceded a venereal taint, the greatest caustion is necessary. A degree of virus, which makes no impression on a part habituated to its stimulus, may convey infection to another unaccustomed to its action.

The gonorrhoea was for many years considered to be a local effect of that poison which, when introduced into the system, produced syphilis. The conclusion was obvious, as it was received in the same manner, and in the same organs. More attentive discrimination led to doubts on the subject, and to some experiments which, though personal, were scarcely justifiable. It was recollected, that the syphilis appeared more than a hundred years before the local inflammation was observed or described; that the latter often continued for several months without being attended by the former; and that the alteration from syphilis to gonorrhoea was a rare occurrence, not without suspicion of a new infection. These doubts suggested two important alterations in practice. Mercury was disused in gonorrhoea, and cooling medicines, with laxatives, only employed; or the inflammation was at once boldly checked, either by astringents, or by exciting a greater inflammation with a more violent and temporary discharge. The result of these plans is more decisive than a host of arguments. They were, for a long time, treated as dangerous innovations, and numerous are the cases of syphilis said to have been produced by their means. Mercury, however was gradually considered as less essential to the cure, and no great inconvenience has resulted. Syphilis sometimes apparently arises from gonorrhoea; and it is not surprising that, in such persons, either plan of checking the latter should be also attended with the former. In fact, both diseases are introduced at the same time; and the criterion of future syphilis, the chancre, sometimes appears very early in gonorrhoea. It is, we believe, absolutely certain that the matter of chancre introduced into the urethra will not produce a gonorrhoea, and the discharge from the urethra inserted under the skin will not produce syphilis. Yet there is little doubt but that the diseases are nearly related; and were we to indulge in speculation, we should suppose that the gonorrhoea was at first derived from syphilis; but that in a series of years, and successive introductions to different constitutions, it assumed a milder form, and became specifically distinct. In the same way it is not improbable that the vaccina may have been originally small pox. The gonorrhoea is undoubtedly, at present, a much more mild disease than on its first appearance, and in many persons can scarcely be called a disease. In former periods, the distressing train of symptoms rendered it truly terrible; and its consequences were swelled, often scirrhous, testicles; fistulae in the perinae-um; unconquerable strictures in the urethra; incontinence of urine, etc. These, excepting probably the strictures, are now comparatively uncommon.

Various are the preservations from gonorrhoea recommended and advertised as nostrums. We should perhaps not greatly assist the cause of moraliiy were wc to show how its precepts might be violated with impunity; but perhaps the fatal effects ot a momentary deviation from the path of virtue may be sometimes obviated, without holding out encouragement to vice. There is, in fact, no certain preventive; though the danger of infection may be certainly diminished by the most scrupulous cleanness, washing with soap and wa-ter,or water to which a small proportion of the aqua kali puri has been added. The proportion should be such as to make a very slight impression on the tongue; and, in producing this effect, the alkali must be very gradually added; if it be first made strong, and afterwards diluted, the stronger alkaline solution dissolves the mucus of the tongue, so that each successive addition of water scarcely makes any difference in the taste, as the tongue is more tender. The poison of the gonorrhoea is applied apparently to the orifice of the urethra; but, in the erected state, when the corpora cavernosa urethrae are distended, the urethra itself is a little inverted; and, when collapsed, the part which before appeared the orifice is the upper portion of the canal. This collapse assists the progress of the poison still a little lower, and it at last rests about a finger's breadth in the urethra. In the use, therefore of preventatives, some of the fluid must be insinuated into the urethra, and a little may be even injected in a more diluted state.

When the idea that this disease was distinct from syphilis began to prevail, practitioners attempted to cure it, at once, by dissolving and discharging the mucus. The means employed was an injection of what was then called the caustic alkali, a weak solution of the kali pu-rum, proportioned in the manner just mentioned. It certainly cured the disease, without any remaining inconvenience; but the inflammation it excited was sometimes so considerable as to be more troublesome than even gonorrhoea, and we are apprehensive that strictures in the urethra have been a frequent consequence. Injections of a solution of hydrargyrus muriatus have been also recommended, and employed with success; not indeed as a mercurial, but as a stimulant. Each stimulates the mucous glands of the urethra, increases the secretion of mucus, and washes away, in the discharge, the remaining poison. The proportion varies: but about two grains to eight ounces of distilled water is sufficiently strong for men. The vagina is less sensible than the urethra; and in women the proportion should be increased, till it produces a smart pungent pain. This remedy is said effectually to relieve the most obstinate gonorrhoeas in that sex.