John Hunter observes, that it is only the developed disease that is communicable, and for the propagation of venereal affections the _poisonous secretion_ must be deposited. So confident was he of this, that he even permitted married men having gonorrhœa to cohabit with their wives, to save appearances; care being taken first to clear all the parts of any matter, by syringing the urethra, then making water, and, _lastly_, washing the glans. Such, however, is my belief of the rapidity of the formation of the secretion, that, aided by the excitement of the generative act, the deposite of the same would necessarily take place with the seminal emission, especially in persons of full temperament, and in the plenitude of the sexual appetite, and thereby be liable to communicate the disease. It is becoming a prevalent fashion to give new names to the several forms of venereal disease, such as substituting “urethritis,” “blenorrhagia,” &c., for gonorrhœa; and even to syphilis are added “tertiary symptoms;” the names quoted being selected to express more symptoms than the old ones conveyed. I consider that this circumstance tends to support my opinion—that gonorrhœa and syphilis are not identical, and that each disease (the former being distinguished by urethral discharges, and the latter by ulcers and other cutaneous disfigurements) has innumerable varieties. I hold them both to be but modifications of inflammation from a poisonous source, and its consequences common to the structures in which they respectively become seated, and differing in degree according to the severity of the attack. Another proof in support of the last assertion is, I think, the time of the appearance of the particular disease. There is certainly a more usual time for a clap to manifest itself, such as from the seventh to the ninth day; but it very often occurs within twenty-four hours after connexion, and syphilis sometimes as early; and instances occur where weeks elapse before either of the forms shows itself.