No medical practitioner, in England or France, could or can point out one symptom pathognomonic of a syphilitic virus / by David Macloughlen.

  • Macloughlin, David, 1786-1870.
Date:
1867
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: No medical practitioner, in England or France, could or can point out one symptom pathognomonic of a syphilitic virus / by David Macloughlen. 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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    female, is a disease which occurs spontaneously in both sexes, and without coitus. The ulcer on the prepuce of the male has most commonly a hard base. If we read Mr. Hunter s observations on the rise and progress of what he calls the true chancre on the reproductive organs, we remain satisfied that Mr. Hunter mistook the Herpes pracputialis ulcer for a true chancre. Besides, if the hard- ness at the base of an ulcer on the reproductive organs is the only proof of the existence of a syphilitic virus, why have we not that hardness at the base of an ulcer affecting the glans penis ?—no finger ever yet detected such hardness at the base of an ulcer on the glans penis. Fifty-six years ago, at Lisbon, to prove that the hardness at the base of an ulcer on the reproductive organs is not pathognomonic of a syphilitic virus, I saw two medical officers apply caustic to their healthy prepuce,—two hard-based ulcers were the consequence. Moreover, is it not at this moment known to every scientific medical practitioner, that hardness at the base of an ulcer on the reproductive organs, depends on the tissue in which the ulcer is situated, and on the degree of inflammation which accompanies it ? See Bateman on Cutaneous Diseases. Therefore Mr. Hunter’s test of the existence of a syphilitic virus is an error. Dr. Record, the great syphiliclograplier of the age, says that every ulcer on the repi'oductive organs which secretes inoculable pus contains the syphilitic virus. Fifty years ago, I was present at Valenciennes, in the north of France, when my late friend Dr. Murray, Inspector-General of Army Hospitals, took pus from an herpetic preputialis ulcer in a state of active inflammation, inoculated with it, and with perfect success.—See Dr. Evans on Syphilis. Very recently, the distinguished scientific Surgeon of St. George’s Hospital, Mr. Henry Lee, attempted to inoculate with pus from an ulcer in a state of chronic inflammation, but failed. He, however, irritated that ulcer, excited active inflammation, then this ulcer secreted inoculable pus. Therefore, inoculable pus depends on the state of active inflam- mation in which the ulcer is, and not on a specific syphilitic virus. Of this fact Dr. Record is himself aware; for he recommends that the pus for inoculation be taken from an ulcer before that ulcer