Syphilitic diseases : their pathology, diagnosis, and treatment, including experimental researches on inoculation, as a differential agent in testing the character of these affections / by John C. Egan.

  • Egan, John C.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Syphilitic diseases : their pathology, diagnosis, and treatment, including experimental researches on inoculation, as a differential agent in testing the character of these affections / by John C. Egan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    186/406 (page 164)
    and his rest and appetite are quickly restored. It will sometimes be requisite, at the onset of the attack, to have recourse to anodynes for the pur- pose of procuring rest. In these instances, I have found more benefit from the use of Dover's pow- der than any other preparation of opium. Should effusion take place into the synovial membranes, or bursce of the joints, counter-irritation by means of blisters over the seat of the tumefaction, or the application of the tincture of iodine, may be resorted to with much advantage. Hitherto, it will be observed, I have studiously avoided recom- mending the use of mercury for the cure of either the primary sore of this class, or for the constitu- tional affections to which I have alluded ; and, in doing so, I would not have it supposed that I am prejudiced against its employment, without having given to it that fair and impartial trial to which every remedial agent is entitled ; more particularly when it is, even at the present day, regarded by many as a specific for every phase and variety of the disease. Biassed by early associations in favour of its adoption, I entered upon my duties as sur- geon to the Lock Hospital ; but after no consider- able lapse of time did I perceive that, in thus sub- jecting to the influence of this mineral the jmtients committed to my charge, I was not only employ- ing an unnecessary remedy, but inflicting a cruelty upon those that came under my care. The cure of the primary sore was not much accelerated ; and I