Syphilitic lesions of the osseous system in infants and young children / by R.W. Taylor.
- Taylor, Robert W. (Robert William), 1842-1908
- Date:
- 1875
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Syphilitic lesions of the osseous system in infants and young children / by R.W. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![are certain reasons, however, beyond this of mere popular be- lief, which tended to strengthen this view, and these are that the syphilitic lesions of the osseous system in infants presented several strong points of resemblance to the bone-lesions of rickets, and that as they did not in every instance present clear syphilitic features they were attributed to scrofula. As these two diseases were brought out in a salient manner, the idea gained ground, that when osseous lesions occurred in children, they were due to either one of them, and some writers put forward the views that syphilis could cause rickets, and that the two diseases were frequently found in the same patient. Thus it can now be readily seen howunprecise were the diagnostic points thus drawn, and what a great barrier existed in the way to true progress in clinical investigation.' I have no doubt but that this confusion has tended to j^roduce some of the discrepancies in opinion which noW exist among some observers as to the pe- culiarities of the osseous lesions of rickets. Thus it ha]:)pened that rickets and struma were in the majority of cases considered as the diseases causing many lesions of the bones in children, while their syphilitic origin, in many instances, escaped entirely from consideration. In spite, however, of this well-grounded belief and of the reigning confusion, cases of bone-lesion were fi-oni time to time reported as being due to syphilis, and the opinion lurked in the mind that such lesions might occur. If this had not been so, it is very probable that the standstill would have been greater than it really was. These reported cases, how- ever, were not numerous, nor, in the majority of instances, were they carefully and elaI)orately reported, so that they did not afford the matei'ial necessary for clinical study and deduction. This was the state of affairs when, in 1870, an important article was published by Dr. Gr. Wegner, the assistant to Professor Vircliow, in Berlin. In it he gave a minute microscopic de- sci'iittion of the lesions of the bones in twelve syphilitic childi-en, and he sliowed quite cleai-ly that the pathological pro- cesses are sui generis. Besides this, he ventured the statement that such lesions were not rare, but were even quite constant. These observations, though not quite exhaustive, have since been fully confirmed, and, in some particulai-s, added to, by Profs. AValdeyer and Kobner, who also agree with Wegner as to the fj-equency of occurrence of the lesions. In two yeai-s, c](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20394378_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
