On the relative frequency and value of certain symptoms of congenital lues / W. Bathurst Woodman, M.D.

  • Woodman, W. Bathurst (William Bathurst), 1836-1877.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relative frequency and value of certain symptoms of congenital lues / W. Bathurst Woodman, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    5/20
    OJ^ THE RELATIVE FREQUEI^CY AND YALUE OF CERTAIN SYMPTOMS OF CONGENITAL LUES. Ma-NY of us have perhaps thought that the labours of Diday, Lancereaux, Henry Lee, Hutchinson, and other observers, had established the fact of hereditary transmission of the syphilitic cachexia almost be^^ond question, doubt, or cavil. The temper of our age is however less easy to be persuaded; it bends to no authority, however eminent. And now that Dr. Ballard has boldly thrown down the gauntlet, and has plainly asked the question, as if it had never been asked before, Is there such a thing as hereditary syphilis ? the medical public, and all who are interested in this question, will probably demand fresh evidence, rather than be content to refer to any published works or papers, however eminent their authors. This paper can only be taken as an incidental contribution to the new evidence which will doubtless be furnished abundantly toward the solution of this question, because my object is rather to direct attention to the relative value and frequency of certain symptoms, than to discuss their setiology. It may, however, be taken as an indirect and independent witness on the question, for this reason : it is based upon two hundred cases of children, in all of whom one parent was known to have suffered severely from syphilis, and in all but four or five there was evidence that both parents had so suffered. All but three were patients of the North-Eastern Children's Hospital, and I made it my endeavour to sift the evidence as carefully as I could. In the majority of these cases I saw both parents myself, at some time or another. And a very large number of thorn admitted having had syphilis, so that I did not rely merely upon symptoms in the case of the parents.