A lecture on syphilis : delivered at Guy's Hospital, January 11, 1867 / by Samuel Wilks.

  • Samuel Wilks
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on syphilis : delivered at Guy's Hospital, January 11, 1867 / by Samuel Wilks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    syphilis is a specific contagious disease, and that in not a single example of the class to which it belongs have we any knowledge of a remedy properly so called. Each runs its course, be it typhus, small-pox, or cattle plague. As regards syphilis, the only remedies which have ever been regarded in the light of curative agents have been mercury and iodide of potassium ; arid most men of experience are agreed that these remedies do have a most marked effect in removing , certain venereal symptoms, and producing for a time an apparent cure. At one time, no doubt, mercury was looked upon in the light of an antidote; but, from a better know- ledge of its action, its influence appears to be exerted merely on the general secreting apparatus of the body, and so, by promoting absorption, assists in getting rid of many of the morbid results of syphilis. Similar effects of the drug are seen in the removal of a bronchocele, enlargement of a lymphatic gland, or a pleuritic effusion. Iodine and potash have also analogous effects. When, therefore, a node is removed from a bone, it is probable that an absorption of the new material takes place, but that the drug administered has no influence over the cause producing it; thus it is that after a short time a relapse takes place, and the same symp- tom occurs again. It would seem, then, that our best remedies — as those just named—have no influence over syphilis itself, but only over its effects. A practical lesson here follows, which I have often adopted with the best success : instead of considering that mercury is a remedy for the earlier stages, and that at a later period tonics are required, this drug may be found useful even when the cachectic condition of the patient would have rather contra- indicated it. I have several times witnessed the good effects of more active treatment in patients whose condition had suggested merely wine, quinine, cod-liver oil, and suchlike remedies, but where a true syphilitic action was still in operation. The witnesses on our Committee, with few exceptions, were mostly of opinion that mercury was a valuable remedy in, but not curative of, syphilis. It might modify results, but not prevent them. Such opinion is probably now generally held. Thus Ricord says — “ Le mercure fait disparaitre les manifestations actuelles; il ne neutralise pas la diathese.5’ And Welbank before him — “Mercury antagonises the influence excited by the syphilitic virus; but is no specific antidote to the virus itself, which must
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