Historical and medical researches into the origin, nature, and treatment of syphilis / by M. Devergie ; translated by John Sinclair Innes.

Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical and medical researches into the origin, nature, and treatment of syphilis / by M. Devergie ; translated by John Sinclair Innes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    quences of the excess of every kind into which they plunged themselves ? It is sufficient to cast an eye on the state of our country in these bygone times, to convince ourselves of the numerous evils our un- fortunate ancestors were a prey to in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. History offers us, on every page, views of horrible misery, and the fearful results of it; nothing could be seen but perpetual wars, kings against princes and nobles, monarchy against feudalism ; what with intestine wars among the nobles themselves^ what with indisciplined armies, living by theft and rapine, we observe nothing except exactions in every form, stormings, burnings, massacres, famines, epidemic and contagious diseases, harassing with fury a people tormented and oppressed in every manner, who, like a parcel of vile slaves, plunged into de- bauchery, seeing no other remedies for these evils, but to seek for oblivion in every excess that debases man to the state of the brutes. What circumstances then were more favourable for developing diseases of the genital organs ? Why then refuse to acknow- ledge this antiquity of syphilis among all nations ? Does not Swediaur inform us, that this disease has been known from time immemorial in Hindostan, under the name of Persian fire ? In spite of its dis- tant position, China has not been exempt; and if we refer to the most correct authors, it is clearly to be traced at the same time in the four quarters of the globe—do we not see its spontaneous development in man and in animals ? Our medical journals fur- nish us with examples in different countries. In
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