Some thoughts on the evolution and affinity of disease / by F. Le Gros Clark.

  • Clark, Frederick Le Gros, 1811-1892.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some thoughts on the evolution and affinity of disease / by F. Le Gros Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    that also of opinion; and the same objection may be urged against evolution generally; and time and opportunity alone can show how far such speculation maybe justified: for this subject is not one which can be brought to the test of direct experiment. Yet the present state of our knowledge has prepared the ground, and supplied much of the material which constitutes a foundation on which to raise a superstructure of reasonable probability. During my student life I became interested in the subject of this paper, by having my attention directed to the evolution of syphilis by Mr Travers, whose articled pupil I then was. This eminent surgeon and philosophic thinker was an advocate of the unity of the venereal poison, and of its original derivation from an inflamed mucous membrane. I naturally adopted this view; and the experience of my professional life has confirmed the impressions thus early received. I will state briefly the line of argument pursued in illustration of jDathological evolu- tion, as exemplified by the venereal disease;^ and then offer a few remarks on the affinity of disease and evolution in patho- logy generally. The first proposition is, that the existence of an inflamed mucous membrane is capable of exciting a similar condition in a healthy mucous surface \vith which it is placed in contact; as demonstrated by instances of inflammatory leucorrhoea causing suppurative ophthalmia in new-born infants; and even purulent discharge from the male urethra. There is, no doubt, more susceptibility to such infection in some persons than in others, as is exemplified in the communication of gonorrhoea; and this receptiveness, whatever it may be due to, is a potent factor in the development of this, as of other diseases. The next stage is the production of a sore; and this, as I apprehend few will question, may result from the simple application and retention of gonorrhoeal matter from the vagina on an excoriation or cutaneous crevice of the glans penis or prepuce. The secretion fi.'om the ulcer consequent on this lesion may, when absorbed, infect the system, producing mild secondary s}nnptoms, mani- ' This branch of the subject has been more fully treated in a paper published in the Jin'tish Medical Journal of April 24 ; and some passages in it, relevant to the present paper, have been transferred to tliese pages.