Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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Inquiring for gonorrhœa in the past, we must find out whether the patient was treated by local applications with instruments to the posterior part of the urethra, this being the only radical treatment of chronic gonorrhœa. As a rule, every chronic gonorrhœa invades the posterior part of the urethra and, usually, inflammation of the posterior part of the urethra involves also the prostatic gland.

The presence of strictures and hypertrophy of the prostate, unless they occur in connection with a gonorrhœa, are indicative of a faulty activity of those glands which influence the formation of fatty or connective tissue in the body, as will be shown. It may indicate changes in the thyroid, after extirpation or degeneration of which the connective tissue in the body is increased, to which fact is also largely due the occurrence of prostatic hypertrophy.

We must inquire as to the passage of urine. An interrupted stream with pain on micturition may indicate, in elderly persons, a hypertrophy of the prostate, especially if these pains are more frequent in cold weather. The bladder must be examined for the presence of stone. The presence of stone, as also of long-standing gleet and strictures that are not cured, lessen the chances of a long life, the dangers of cystitis, and ascending pyelonephritis, and nephritis, hanging, as the sword of Damocles, over the heads of their unfortunate possessors.