Volume 2

Handbook of geographical and historical pathology / by August Hirsch ; translated from the second German edition by Charles Creighton.

  • Hirsch, August, 1817-1894.
Date:
1883-1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of geographical and historical pathology / by August Hirsch ; translated from the second German edition by Charles Creighton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    651/702 (page 635)
    The history and geographical distribution of scrofula teach us, further, that no race or nationality enjoys an absolute or even relative imniunity from it, that the malady becomes pie- valent among all communities and families whenever the etio- logical factors favorable to its development make themselves felt. Some observers, such as Marpurgo, Vauvray and others, assure us that the disease is rare among the nomade Arabs ; but the explanation of that is not their nationality, inasmuch as their own stock are by no means exempt from scrofula in towns and settlements in Algiers. Again, if the malady is not often seen among the nomade Kirghiz,1 the reason of that is that weakly children are regarded by them as a punishment from heaven, and perish from want of tending before scrofula has time to develop. § 217. To A GREAT EXTENT INHERITED, BUT NOT NECESSARILY from Scrofula in the Parents. One of the most intricate points in the etiology of scrofula is the question of the hereditary transmission of the disease. It is altogether denied or very much doubted by some (Phillips, Killiet and Barthez, and others), who are supported by few observations, or by very faulty statistics, or by erroneous assumptions •, but by far the larger number of observers at all times have pronounced decidedly for hereditary transmission. Among others Cooper says : “ That scrofula is a hereditary disease appears as clear to me as can be ; and they who deny it, deny the evidence of their senses.” A few, such as Lugol and Guiet, have even gone so far as to make the inherited disposition a conditio sine qyid non for the development of the malady. “ Pour nous,” says Guiet, “ un enfant nait scrofuleux, mais les circonstances qui viennent se grouper autour de lui apres sa naissance peuvent hater ou retarder ou meme quelquefois arreter le principe qui lui a ete 1 This statement of Muydell for the Kirghiz Steppe is one that I cannot con- firm from my own observations made (to a very limited extent however) in the Government of Astrakhan. In the kibitkas of the Kirghiz, loaded with filth, I have seen several children with typical scrofula. 2 1 Revue mid./ 1884, April, p. 533.