Great Cringe Moments in History: Today's lesson- Why Gonorrhea was nicknamed the Clap. In the world of modern medicine there are treatments, and there are cures. Today there is a cure for Gonorrhea so I won't talk about that. However before this cure was discovered there was a treatment, which is today's lesson. Way back in the colonial days, if a man was diagnosed with Gonorrhea his urine would crystallize within his urinary track. This man would then die of septic shock for his body could not expel fluid waste as it should, due to the crystalline blockage. So this treatment was practiced to prevent death, when a man would go to the doctor. The doctor would intruct his patient to place his junk on a table. The doctor would then take a large flat object, like a heavy book, and slam it on his patients junk as hard as possible, often making a "clapping" sound. This broke up the crystals allowing the patient to urinate the broken shards out. Unfortunatly sometimes the patient could not pee afterwards anyway, this is because the docter did not strike his junk hard enough. Which is why the doctors would have to do it as hard as possible so hopefully it was only one "clap" per treatment. Now again this is before there was a cure, so this patient would have to go back once he couldn't relieve himself anymore because the crystals would return. He would have go back regularly and get "clapped" again for the rest of his life, or he would die.