It is time to be more explicit about VD, especially what the different forms look like and how we tell them apart. We all agree in listing two diseases, chancroid and lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), in addition to syphilis and gonorrhea as "true" venereal diseases, plus another which we are now finding reason to separate from the group, plus a miscellaneous collection of still others on which there is disagreement. Syphilis and gonorrhea are the major venereal diseases; they are the core problem which has resisted massive world wide attempts to solve it; they are commoner than the others and better understood. It looks as though the two other undisputed ones, chancroid and LGV, could be controlled without much trouble, and are in fact getting less common. The clinical aspects of syphilis were previously described in a previous Chapter and need not be repeated; but all the others are worth looking at major, minor, doubtful, and disputed.

It may be just as well to be specific here about the meaning of I the word "venereal." The specialist is apt to take it literally: a venereal disease is simply one contracted through sexual intercourse. Butt to ordinary people the word has all sorts of piercing and rasping overtones, especially if it refers to symptoms they happen to show themselves. Not all specialists take this casually, and I am among those who would restrict the definition so as to avoid causing unnecessary pain. Here is a doctor who tends to agree: W. K. Bernfeld of Wales, who wrote a one page paper entitled "Iatrogenic venereological complaints," which opens with a few words that explain the title:

"Iatrogenic" means "produced by doctors," although by analogy with "pathogenic" it should denote "producing doctors." "Complaint" has the double edged meaning of ailment and accusation.” (see VENEREAL DISEASE AND NOT VENEREAL DISEASE PART II)