A practical treatise on venereal disorders : and more especially on the history and treatment of chancre / by Philippe Ricord.

  • Ricord, Ph., 1800-1889.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on venereal disorders : and more especially on the history and treatment of chancre / by Philippe Ricord. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    fourth, or fifth day after the application of the cause, all risk of con- stitutional infection is removed. 10. Indurated chancre is the common antecedent of constitutional syphilis; induration commonly commences on the fifth day, it ap- parently announces that the poison is entering the system, and, in so far as it has not occurred, the disease may be regarded as still local. M. Ricord's experiments further prove, 1st. That the fact of an individual having been or still being the subject of chancre, does not prevent his contracting other chancres to an indefinite number. 2d. That chancre does not multiply itself, i. e., if a man is affected with a primary syphilitic sore, we never see sores of the same nature appearing on other parts of the body, unless from the appli- cation of matter from the first sore, or by contagion from another individual. 3d. The presence of constitutional syphilis is no hindrance to the occurrence of chancre. 4th. The frequency of secondary symptoms bears no proportion to the number of primary sores developed at the same time. Numerous cases are recorded in which wounds, leech-bites, &c, assumed the characters of chancre, or were poisoned by the con- stitutional malady. M. Ricord has tested these cases, and relates the following interesting history in proof of the position, that chancre does not multiply itself, &c. A woman had on the vulva numerous chancres, which were in the period of increase, and secreted abundantly. She was seized with rheumatic pain in the right external malleolus, and leeches were applied. A few days after, she complained of much pain in the leech-bites, and on examination it was found that some of them were inflamed, and had assumed the appearance of the pustules of ecthyma. These pustules were soon succeeded by ulcerations pre- senting all the characters of true chancres, and it was believed by those attending the hospital, that they were the result of general infection. M. Ricord directed that leeches should be applied to both limbs, and every precaution used to prevent the contact of contagious matter; and then performed the following experiment. He inocu- lated matter taken from the vulvular chancres, and matter secreted by the ulcerated leech-bites, both which gave rise to true chancres. The bites which had been protected cicatrized in the usual way. It sometimes happens that, when leeches are applied to buboes, foul ulcerations occur, which cannot be attributed to the contact of contagious matter. In this case one of two things has occurred • either the bites have been irritated, and succeeded bv a kind of furunculus which suppurates, in which case the matter is not inocu- lable; or the infection has been communicated from within outwards that is, the matter of the glandular chancre has inoculated the leech- bites in its progress towards the surface, in which case the ulcerated bites furnish an inoculable secretion.