Syphilis in obstetrics / by William J. Gow.

  • Gow, William J.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Syphilis in obstetrics / by William J. Gow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER XXVI SYPHILIS IN OBSTETRICS An attempt will be made in this article to present the main facts which are known of s}?phihs in its relation to obstetric medicine. Our knowledge of certain parts of this subject is clear enough, but on the other hand there are certain problems of great practical importance which at present remain unsolved. It is true that answers have been given to these vexed problems, but whether they are final or not cannot yet be foretold. If the doctrine that the Spirochaete pallida is the cause of syphihs and is pathognomonic of the disease, which is now widely, if not universally, held, be confirmed by more extended experi- ment and research, many of the problems at present unanswered, or doubtfully answered, may be capable of a final solution. At the present moment, although it wiU be necessary to touch on many doubtful points and bring forward clinical evidence, which up to now has been exclusively rehed on as the only support of the views advanced and the theories held, it must not be for- gotten that further investigations may possibly overthrow some of the most cherished beliefs which are stiU held, as to the nature and transmission of the disease. A more accurate knowledge of the life-history of the spirochaete may clear up some at least of the points at present in dispute, especially as regards the questions of sperm infection of the ovum and the allied problem of con- ceptional syphilis. If the discovery of the spirochaete modifies the prevailing views of the transmission of syphilis to the same extent that the discovery of the streptococcus modified the views both of the nature and modes of transmission of puerperal fever, much of the literature dealing with the transmission of syphilis will have to be rewritten (see vol. i, pp. 43-85). The problems which arise in connexion with syphilis and pregnancy are highly complex. The discovery of the Spirochaete
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