Syphilis, its nature and treatment : with a chapter on gonorrhoea / by Charles Robert Drysdale.
- Drysdale, Charles Robert, 1829-1907.
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Syphilis, its nature and treatment : with a chapter on gonorrhoea / by Charles Robert Drysdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![Ophthalmic Hospital, cauterised the canal in its whole length, and thus cured the epiphora. In some cases bridles are found across the canal, and the os unguis is not unfrequently attacked. Large doses of iodide of potassium will often effect a rapid cure when the affection is acute. There is sometimes ulceration of the eyelids in the later period of syphilis. Interstitial keratitis is not so rare in adult syphilis as some believe, hut is very commonly indeed met with at the Moorfields Ophthalmic Hospital in hereditary syphilis. Cataract is by no means rarely caused in hereditary cases by s.yphilis; the author has seen several examples of this fact on the operating table in Moorfields. The author has been surprised to find, that M. Alfred Fournier of Paris] (August 1871,) has not met with any cases of hereditary disease of the teeth, as described by Hutchinson. Is this because M. Fournier does not see many opthalmic cases; or, because, in Paris this form of lesion is rare ? Loss of vision may be occasioned by caries of the sphenoid, or by syphilitic tumours pressing on the optic nerve. There may be complete loss of vision, too, from changes taking place in the interior of the orbit, and seen by the ophthalmoscope, such as con- traction in the size of the arteries and atrophy of the papillae. In such cases iodide of potassium is often powerless to prevent the supervention of blindness. The author has seen several cases of deafness in hereditary syphilis, but doubts whether deafness is often caused by syphilis in grown-up persons. There are, however, cases on record to prove that such deafness occurs. Mucous tubercles are, indeed, by no means unfrequent in the external meatus; and, when extensive, these growths may cause temporary deafness, which is easily remedied, however, by dusting the parts with powdered zinc or calomel, or touching them wTith nitrate of silver frequently. d2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22355698_0079.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
