The lues is at present received from infection only, and it usually shows its source by the tumour of the glands, interposed between it and the receptaculum chyli, as in the lymphatic glands of the groin, when received in venereal embraces; in the axilla when by wounds in the fingers, either in dissection or obstetrical labours; and in the neck when received by children suckling, or, as was formerly the case, by kissing. Where the skin is thin, as in the first and last instances, it is absorbed from the surface, but not from the fingers, unless there is a wound. Swellings of the lymphatic glands are not always the consequence of infection. Sometimes no stoppage occurs, and sometimes, as in the glands of the mesentery, either from anastomosis, or. a lymphatic escaping a gland (see Lag-tea vasa), no inflammation takes place. When children receive the infection from their mothers they are sometimes born with eruptions, chiefly discovered about the nates; but sometimes the disease is not discovered till after about three weeks or a month, when foul ulcers, blotches, or brown copper coloured eruptions, appear about the mouth, the nates, or other parts. It is contended by some pathologists, that, as there appears to be no infection of the blood, it is not probable that the foetus should be diseased in the uterus. They consider, therefore, the infant as infected at the period of its passing through the vagina. If it were certain the venereal ulcers were never observed at the birth, we might admit this idea; but we think we have in more than one instance discovered them when the child was first washed; and though we admit the general mass to be without any discoverable taint, we know not but that some separation may take place in the maternal part of the placenta. It is sufficient at this time to admit that the child is often infected from the parent; and when the lues has continued, in either parent, for a long period, though then apparently free, the child will soon sink with numerous anomalous symptoms resembling, though distantly only, the lues. '

As a running and discharge distinguish a gonorrhoea, so does a small, hard, irritable pimple usher in the more decided lues. This pimple, called a Chancre, q. v., is very general, we believe universal, but so little painful, that it often passes unobserved. In this state it seems to convey no infection, and for a time ho matter is certainly absorbed from it; but, at an indefinite period, the glands in the groin begin to swell, and a hard, painful cord, an inflamed lymphatic, may sometimes be traced along the back of the penis to the tumid gland (see Bubo). As the chancre occasionally passes unnoticed, so a bubo, as we have said, does not always occur, and the patient continues in a delusive security, unsuspicious of any disease: yet, if either is attended to, the disease might probably be checked in its bud. We would not, however, enforce such an idea; and we have rather recommended discussing bubos, for this reason, that we avoid a troublesome sore, and at last cannot escape from a mercurial course. It is not, however, by suppuration that the future lues can be averted, but by an extirpation of the gland; yet even this, for the reasons already assigned, would not offer a perfect security.

When neither chancre nor bubo calls the attention to the disease, little inconvenience is felt for some weeks, sometimes many months. It has been contended that the infection may be dormant for many years; but this is certainly not true, and the idea has been cherished to excuse fresh infection. So frequently do patients deceive us in this respect, that it is not easy to fix the. limits of the poison lurking unobserved. Perhaps from three weeks to six months some symptoms are usually to be discovered. If minutely examined, the first appearances are a sallow countenance, languor, and list-lessness; copper coloured spots on the breast, the arms, and the face, particularly on the forehead, and round the roots of the hair. These by degrees become scaly, occasionally discharging a thin fluid, which forms a scab. Soon afterwards an uneasiness is felt in swallowing, and a livid, flabby inflammation is observed in the throat, with deep ulcers, covered at the bottom with a slough, whose edges are ragged. There is no very marked difference between these and the ulcers of the angina gangrenosa; but they are distinguished by the absence of fever, and their continuance with little, sometimes scarcely any, loss of strength.

These ulcers occasion a hoarseness, and, if near the Eustachian tube, a deafness; and by degrees cover the fauces, or at least extend far over them. If still farther neglected, pains are felt in the bones, chiefly in the harder long bones, as the shin and arms, often in the skull, particularly over the eyes, and at the bottom of the orbits. A swelling comes on the shin bones, and sometimes on the os frontis, which, if neglected, corrodes into a foul ulcer, with a caries, penetrating to the brain. The ulcers on the shin and humerus assume the same appearance; the palate bone equally suffers, and the meat in deglutition is returned through the nostrils. The bones of the nose soon share a similar fate, and the nose sinks flat on the face. When the pains of the bones commence, the strength begins to fail, and, long before these extremities, is so much reduced that the patient crawls with difficulty. Hectic fever comes on, and death closes the loathsome scene*.

In the earlier histories of this complaint the symptoms are more various and more dreadful; but on these we need not enlarge, as we have continued the description far beyond the point at which the disease is usually suffered to arrive. In the whole of this course the

5 U 2 blood is apparently untainted. It will not at least communicate the infection; for the matter is largely diluted, and probably sheathed by the albumen. When deposited in the glands, without this medium, its virulence is discovered. By what power it is deposited is among the arcana of physiology, which we can only approach by conjecture (see Secretion). The poison itself seems to possess an assimilatory property; and, when in a considerable degree of concentration, to be highly deleterious, affecting, by its sedative powers, the nervous system, and even the mind; for a despondency, which the removal of the symptoms cannot relieve, is among its effects when far advanced.