Syphilis : with reference to hereditament, diagnosis and prevalence / by H.B. Allen, M.D.

  • Allen, H. B., M.D.
Date:
[1904?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Syphilis : with reference to hereditament, diagnosis and prevalence / by H.B. Allen, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from the “ Intercolonial Medical Journal of Australasia,’T September 20, 1904. Syphilis, with Reference to Hereditament Diagnosis and Prevalence. By H. B. ALLEN, M.D. Professor of Anatomy and Pathology in the University of Melbourne. Pathologist to the Melbourne Hospital. In my University teaching and in the daily work of the Patho¬ logical Department of the Melbourne Hospital, I have for many years laid stress on the vast importance of inherited syphilis in relation to child mortality, and on certain anatomical signs of syphilis which are very frequent though seldom recognised. Manv of mv colleagues and friends formerly looked upon me as suffering from a mild monomania, but while growing experi- ence has made my own opinions more precise, a number of accurate observers have been checking my statements in the Melbourne and Children s Hospitals, as well as in forensic woik and in private practice. Nevertheless a resume piesented to a post-graduate class at the end of 1903 excited much debate, and though I can now appeal to the observations and results of many members of this Society, though some have more or less fully- aclopted my reading of unquestionable facts, some hesitate and others dissent. And yet I have but been le-discovering 01 rather emphasising afresh and in detail the phenomena under¬ lying the general statements of Fournier, the prince of modern syphilographers, which have been available even for English readers since 1881. I propose this evening to submit in sum¬ mary fashion my experience and my beliefs concerning inherited syphilis, and to urge the adoption by practitioners of the mar¬ riage-law laid down by Fournier for the guidance of syphilitics. Concerning diagnosis, time will not permit moie than a statement of my general conclusions, with bald reference to lllus-