Syphilitic pemphigus in the adult : is there such a disease? / by T. M'Call Anderson.

  • Anderson, McCall, 1836-1908.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Syphilitic pemphigus in the adult : is there such a disease? / by T. M'Call Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of a bean. The pills, which agreed, were continued. The mixture had allayed the itching whenever it was applied. The eruption had almost completely disappeared by this time, though a few new bullae and pustules had formed since my first visit. On the 22nd February the eruption was quite gone, and the pills were omitted, as they had a tendency to derange the stomach slightly. On the 8th March the following was the report:—Continues well, and has never felt so well in health since he contracted the chancre in 1562. The belt omitted a few days ago owing to slight irritation of the skin where it had been applied. Gums have not been the least affected. Ten grains of iodide of potas¬ sium to be taken twice or thrice daily in infusion of chiretta. May llth.—Patient continues well. In my first investigation into the literature of the subject, I came to the conclusion that no undoubted case of syphilitic pem¬ phigus in the adult had been put on record, but on more careful examination I found that Ficord is a believer in such a disease, and he has given the history of a case, accompanied by an admirable illustration of the disease as it attacked the foot, in his splendid treatise on venereal diseases.* He alludes to it as the first which has ever been recorded. This was the case of a healthy young woman wTho had contracted a chancre four months before she came under observation, at which time the eruption had existed for two months. The bullous eruption, which was well marked, was limited to the soles of the feet, and wras accom¬ panied by other symptoms of syphilitic infection, such as articular pains, engorgement of the posterior cervical glands, and syphilitic impetiginous eruptions on the head and chin. The patient was placed under the influence of the proto-iodide of mercury, and dismissed well after two months’ treatment. Three weeks after this, however, she returned with a relapse of the bullous eruption on the soles of the feet, for which she underwent a repetition of the same treatment for three or four weeks, and with the same suc¬ cess. It may be asked, How is syphilitic to be distinguished from simple pemphigus in the adult? To this I would answer, that in the syphilitic form wTe have usually the history ot the contraction of a hard chancre, followed by characteristic secon¬ dary symptoms, either at the same time as, or previous to, the eruption of the bullae. But it may be said, This is no sufficient distinction, because there is no reason why a patient tainted with syphilis may not be affected Avith non-syphilitic pemphigus. True, although such coincidences must be rare ; but then it must be observed, that in the syphilitic form in the infant, and in the * Traite complet des Maladies Yeneriermes, piir le Docteur Philippe Kicord. Paris, 1851. Planclie xxv.