Tertiary syphilitic fever / [J.D. Rolleston].

  • Rolleston, John Davy, 1873-1946.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tertiary syphilitic fever / [J.D. Rolleston]. 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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    Reprinted from The Lancet, Xftmk SO, 1907. (n) TERTIARY SYPHILITIC/ FEVER. Sirs,—It does notl3ie^eDera.lly known that the earliest writers on the disease,. Having recently’ had occasion to peruse the early literature of syphilis I have thought that the following notes might be of interest to some of your readers. Long before John Hunter,^ to whom Dr. Parkes Weber alludes in his intere-sting paper,^ the sy philographers of the sixteenth century, whose works are contained in the collection of Luisinus, had spoken of the existence of fever in the Morbus Gallicus. According to Fracastor,* to whom syphilis owes its name, a slight degree of fever was an occasional though rare event : “ Quandoque et febricula quaedam concomitabatur, sed raro.” Fallopius’s words are similar®: “ Solet aliquando febricula adjungi ob fervorem circa viscera ferventia. Sed hoc raro fit.” Petronius wrote to the same effect ® : “ His nunc aberat. nunc adjuncta febris erat ” Haschard'’ also speaks of a “lenis febricula ” as one of the early symptoms of the disease. Rondelet, the original of Rabelais’s Rondibilis, stated that “some after receiving the infection are seized with fevers and falling into profuse sweats part of the venom is discharged thereby.” ® According to Vigo,® fever was a late symptom. “Ultimo loco vidimus febriculam oriri quae tot pr®nominatis malis hominem ad ultimum ejus diem conducebat.” Ulrich von Hutten,’® one of the most interesting figures in the history of the Reformation, and himself a sufferer from the new disease, also stated that “phthisis” was a sequel. Ambroise Pare ” also reckoned fever among the late phenomena: “ Autres demeurent asthmatiques et hectiques avec une fi^vre lente, et meurent tabides et de.«seichez.” Brassavolus took a less serious view of protracted fever: “ Lentae febres, ac longae cum morbo Gallico futuram hecticafm minime significant. Infinites enim vidi, qui in tales incidere febres ... tamen hectici non evasere, imo Gallico affectu curato, et etiam per existentia, febris ipsa una curata est, ac abivit.” 1 Medical Press and Circular, March 20th, 1907, in wliich I have recorded two eases of syphilis simulating typlioid fever. 2 A Treatise on the Venereal Disease, first edition. 1786, p. 300. 2 Thr L\ncet, March 16th, 1907, p. 728. * Luisinus : Aphrodisiacus sive de Lue Venerea confinens omnia quEBCunque de hac re sunt ab omnibus medicis .conscripta. Lug. Bat., 1728, p. 199. 5 Ibid., p. 780. 8 Ibid., p. 325. ^ Ibid., p. 930. * Daniel Turner: Aphrodisiacus, 1736 (abridged English version of Luisinus). 2 Ibid., p. 450. 10 Ibid., p. 279. 11 Qiuvres, Lyon, 1641, p. 444. 12 Luisinus, loc. cit., p. 678.