In former times, it was not uncommon for the surgeon to insist that all swellings in the groin were venereal, though no primary sore had ever existed: the virus was said to be absorbed from an unbroken surface; the patient’s system was saturated with mercury; and the use of that medicine was persevered in, with the view of opposing those symptoms of a ruined system which itself had produced. Such delusions have now happily passed away. The eruption which follows the chancrous form of primary sore is scaly from the commencement, and by this character is readily distinguished from every other venereal affection. It is generally preceded by an efflorescence or discoloration, rendering the skin of a mottled appearance. The scaly eruption is a form either of lepra or of psoriasis. The patches usually do not exceed a sixpence in size, are distinct and separate from each other; their base is of a dark red or coppery hue, the affected skin is not hard or rough, but soft and pliable, and seldom covered with crusts; as they extend, the edges are slightly elevated at the centre, which alone is covered with thin white scales, appears flattened and somewhat depressed; when they begin to fade, the margins shrink and become paler, and desquamation proceeds slowly; a circular, purplish-red discoloration, with a central depression, remains for some time after the blotches have declined: the depression is permanent, but the discoloration disappears. The smaller patches, which assume a variety of forms, continue for some time of a dark colour, extend towards the circumference, become pustular, and at length ulcerate superficially, enclosing an area of sound skin. When depressions of the skin, as the folds of the nates, are affected, a scaly eruption does not take place, but soft and moist elevations arise, discharging a whitish matter, varying in form and size, and accordingly receiving various appellations, as condylomata, fici, or marisci. From them a secondary form of disease is occasionally communicated. If no decided treatment is resorted to, and if the eruption is consequently permitted to follow its own course, thick crusts form, ulceration proceeds beneath them, the matter is confined, and the patch becomes prominent. Another secondary symptom of chancre is ulceration of the throat, sometimes extensive, but generally situated in the tonsils, or their immediate neighbourhood. The ulcer is not preceded by much pain or swelling: “it is a fair loss of substance, (part being dug out, as it were, from the body of the tonsil,) with a determined edge, and is commonly foul, with thick matter adhering to it, like a slough, which cannot be washed away.” Such ulceration may be simulated by excavated sores attending the phagedenic form of disease; and it ought to be more especially distinguished from an affection to which the tonsil is extremely liable, irregularity of its surface, enlargement, and effusion of lymph, in consequence of chronic inflammation.