On the HMS Saturn, a malignant ulcer appeared on the tip of a seaman’s penis. After several days of agonizing pain during which the wound blackened and festered, the organ finally fell off. The surgeon on board reported that the “whole length of the urethra to the bulb sloughed away, and also the scrotum, leaving the testes and spermatic vessels barely covered with cellular substance.” As if the inevitable outcome needed underlining, the surgeon added, “He died.”
