Selected essays and monographs : translations and reprints from various sources.

Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected essays and monographs : translations and reprints from various sources. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    417/476 (page 381)
    syphilis, recalling more or less the pathological physiognomy of general paralysis.* III. ’ . Second Question :—Is there any reason whatever for believing that true general paralysis ever arises from syphilis ? Needless to say, that is the climax—the main point of the problem; the point which has been, and which, without doubt, will continue to be, the most warmly discussed. Now, in regard to this special question, where do we find ourselves at the present day ? It is useless to deny that the question has produced a scientific movement of considerable intensity in the course of the last few years, and that an inquiry has been instituted on all sides upon the causes of general paralysis,! from which a great fact has been proclaimed, a fact subversive of ancient beliefs and almost revolutionary in nature, namely:—That general paralysis with certainty recognizes syphilis as one of its most common etiological factors, indeed, as the most pre- ponderant and important of all. And, in short, many valid and authentic reasons authorize the admission, for a large number of cases, of a relation of cause and effect, a true and undeniable pathogenic connection, whatever it may be other- wise, between syphilis and general paralysis. To reproduce these reasons here would be to do what I desire to avoid, namely, to raise a new pleading on the question before us. Yet, again, I do not discuss, I expose a situation, a condition of things as they exist. It will suffice, then, to * It lias been proposed to abandon this term of general pseudo-paralysis, and that not only as applying to syphilis but also to those affections known as alcoholic, saturnine, &c., general pseudo-paralysis. In an excellent recent article, contributed to the Traite de Medecine, Messrs. Gilbert and Paul Blocq express a contrary opinionProm the clinical and diagnostic point of view,” they say, “ we cannot agree to the abandonment of this word general pseudo-paralysis, for there exist, clinically, some cases whose behaviour resembles with such apparent precision all the Bymptoms characteristic of general paralysis that the diagnosis, during some time, is not really always possible. We will, therefore, preserve this designation because it appears to us practically useful to describe, if not certain true nosological entities, at least certain symptomatic features capable of imitating true general paralysis.” (p. 149.) t In connection with this enquiry the names of Messrs. Morel, Lavalle'e, and BdlRres will remain prominent on account of their painstaking investigations. See their very interesting monograph under the title of “Syphilis and General Paralysis.” .. ••