, but which is
terrible enough as it is, without any exaggerations.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

GONORRHEA

Source of Gonorrhea--Mucous Membrane of Genital Organs and of Eye
Principal Seats of Disease--Symptoms in Men and in Women--Vagina
Seldom Attacked in Adults--Nobody Inherits Gonorrhea--Ophthalmia
Neonatorum--Differences of Course of Disease in Men and Women--
Gonorrhea Less Painful in Women--Symptoms not Suspected by Woman--
Necessity for the Woman Consulting a Physician--Self-treatment
When Woman Cannot Consult Physician--Formulae for Injections.

The subject of gonorrhea and syphilis is treated pretty fully, from a
layman's point of view, in the author's _Sex Knowledge for Men_. I do
not intend to devote much space to a discussion of the details of
these two diseases here, because the subject is not of such direct
interest to women. Respectable girls and women do not indulge in
illicit relations the same as respectable men and boys do, and their
danger of contracting a venereal disease is insignificant as compared
with men's liability. I will, therefore, touch upon only a few points,
particularly insofar as the diseases differ in their course from the
course pursued in men. Those, however, who are interested may read the
chapters on the subject in the author's _Sex Knowledge for Men_, and
if they want still fuller details, they may study the author's
_Treatment of Gonorrhea and Its Complications in Men and Women_.

[Illustration: GONORRHEAL GERMS.]

=Gonorrhea= is an inflammation caused by a germ called the gonococcus,
discovered by Dr. A. Neisser, of Breslau, Germany, in 1879. Any mucous
membrane may be the seat of gonorrhea, but it attacks by preference
the mucous membrane of the genital organs, and of one other organ--the
eye. Its principal symptoms are: inflammation, pain, burning and
discharge. In men, it attacks the urethra; in women it attacks the
cervix--the neck of the womb--the urethra, and the vulva. The vagina
is seldom attacked in adult women, because the mucous membrane of the
adult vagina is rather tough and does not offer a good soil for the
development of the gonococcus germ. The discharge that a woman has
when she has gonorrhea comes principally or exclusively from the neck
of the womb. In little girls, however, in whom the lining of the
vagina is tender, gonorrhea of the vagina and the vulva is common.
(See chapter Vulvovaginitis in Little Girls.) Gonorrhea is a local