Page:The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood.djvu/212

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
204
POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD.

ganglia and goes no further. The syphilitic virus is alone capable of infecting the system at large, and of affording protection by its presence against subsequent attacks. Unlike the poisons of gonorrhea and the chancroid, it is not limited to purulent matter, but exists in the blood, in the fluids of the secondary lesions, in the semen, and probably in other secretions. There is no opposition whatever between these three poisons; they may all coexist in the same person, who may at the same time have gonorrhea, a chancroid, and a chancre of the syphilitic lesion."

"The chancroid arises only in consequence of contagion from its like. It is most generally found in the vicinity of the genital organs, although it is sometimes found in urethra, vagina and rectum, or wherever there is a mucous surface. It is rarely met on the head or face, where, on the contrary, the initial lesion of syphilis is not uncommon. The vehicle of the chancroid virus is the secretion of the ulcer, which, if it be inserted beneath the epidermis of any other part of the body, a chancroid is equally the result."—John Cowan, M. D.