On the foetus in utero as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism : and on the transmission thereby of secondary or constitutional syphilis from the male to the female parent / by Alexander Harvey, M.D.
- Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
- Date:
- 1859
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the foetus in utero as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism : and on the transmission thereby of secondary or constitutional syphilis from the male to the female parent / by Alexander Harvey, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
15/28 (page 397)
![to a man labouiing under obstinate secondary symptoms, remained hccilth/j for some months after marriage, but became the subject of the same disease in its secondary form, soon after impregnation had taken place; and JAavc considered that, in such a case, the mother derived the disease, not directly from the father, hnt from tlie affected infant which she carried in her womb. These are strong and unequivocal statements, and the specific evidence furnished by individual cases is equally decided. To what extent tlie records of medicine can now supply examples of this description, I cannot say. But I have already repeatedly alluded to those brought forward by Dr. Balfour and by Mr. Hutchinson ; and it is to these that I would now particularly refer. Tlie former gives four or five cases, tlie latter as many as fifty. To be duly appreciated, these cases must be examined indivi- dually and compared together—a task which it were foreign to my object to enter upon at present, even were it possible to accomplish it, without actually reproducing the cases in detail. It must suflSce, therefore, thus to refer to them, and to remark tliat, having carefully considered them, I think th6y conclusively establish in the affirmative the question presently before us; proving that a woman may, and often actually does derive syphilis from her husband, when she conceives by him, and in consequence of her doing so. 3. The next question to be considered is—Whether at each ])regnancy there may be a renetual of the symptoms of secondary syphilis in the woman—implying that she has from some source, or from some cause connected with the state of utero-gestation, imbibed a fresh dose of poison ? On this point, and speaking apparently of uterine syphilitic affection. Dr. Tyler Smith stated at a meeting of the Medico- Chirurgical Society, that he had observed in such cases, that at each pregnancy a fresh dose of the syphilitic poison is imparted to the mother, unless in the meantime the husband had been the subject of anti-syphilitic treatment.* Mr. Hutchinson's expe- rience as regards the ordinary secondary symptoms is to the same effect. Our time will not allow us to refer specially to his cases, as bearing on this question; but it will suffice to quote his own general conclusion:—Increase of symptoms and relapses may be produced by repetition of exposure to contagion—{. e., by the woman again becoming pregnant. And in one of Dr. Bal- four's cases, the first in his collection, there was a recurrence of the syphilitic symptoms during the second pregnancy. The positive value of the fact thus clearly ascertained, and still more, its value in relation to other facts, and as checking or test- ing these, I am disposed to rate very high.t The consideration * See Association Medical Journal for .July 14, 1854. t As this point is important, I liope I may be excused, if, in order to bring it fully into view, I adduce here so much of Dr. Balfour's first case—the only ono in which relapse occurred—as is illustrative of it:—lly the time the lady](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21476780_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
