On some diseases of the eye, the result of syphilis / by A. Maitland Ramsay.

  • Ramsay, A. Maitland (Andrew Maitland), 1859-1946.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some diseases of the eye, the result of syphilis / by A. Maitland Ramsay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    frequent modes of communication, however, are undoubtedly by the finger, the mouth, or the tongue, or through sponges, towels, &c., which have been previously contaminated. From this it will be readily understood how it is that medical men sufier so frequently from this particular form of chancre, so much so, indeed, that in France chancre of the eyelid has been designated the professional chancre.^ While a doctor is brushing a syphilitic throat he may receive infection from the ^occidental fall of saliva on his face through the patient's coughing, or after touching a syphilitic sore he may acci- dentally carry his finger to his eye, and thereby inoculate himself. Infants and young children are often infected by being kissed by a nurse sufi'ering at the time from mucous patches in her mouth. It is common amongst tlie lower classes to remove foreign bodies from the eye by means of the tongue, and if the operator suffers from mucous patches in the lips it is easy to understand how the patient receives infection. After a bruise upon the eye it is also a common practice to incise the skin and suck out the effused blood, and I have known of palpebral chancre arising from this cause. The application of the fasting spittal or of urine, both of which are frequently applied to inflamed eyes by the poor, may also be a source of contamination, and as these remedies are employed when the edges of the eyelid are inflamed and partially denuded of epithelium, the syphilitic poison will gain all the more ready access to the system. It has been affirmed that extra-genital chancres, and more particularly those occurring upon the eyelids, are apt to be followed by specially severe secondary symptoms, but my own experience does not tend to confirm the statement. Case I.—Chancre of eyelid in a hoy 6 years of age— jEtiology obscure—Complete recovery. W. T., 8et. 6, was admitted to the Eye Infirmary on 26th August, 1896. There was on the left lower eyelid an ulcer, which was said to have commenced as a little pimple upon the palpebral margin. It now involved the middle two-thirds of the lid, the edge of which was partially eaten into, and denuded of eyelashes. It was clearly circumscribed, its edges being hard and somewhat elevated, and it was covered by a greyish crust, the removal of which left a raw surface, which 1 Since this paper was written I was consulted by a dentist on account of transient dilatation of his right pupil with paresis of accommodation. He told me that seven years previously, while extracting a tooth, his face was bespattered with blood and saliva. Some weeks afterwards a sore formed on the right inner canthus, and this was followed by all the usual signs and symptoms of secondary syphilis.