Prostitution, in relation to public health : forming the introductory chapter to the second edition of the Treatise on syphilis / by William Acton.

  • Acton, William, 1813-1875.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution, in relation to public health : forming the introductory chapter to the second edition of the Treatise on syphilis / by William Acton. 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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    existed in all ages, and in every climate. In the present day we find that a large proportion of the complaints described in the first part of this work, and which we shall call non-specific * affections, may be developed spontaneously, and that we can produce them at will; hence I imagine it more than probable that they existed long before they were described, because the same agents were then in action to produce them as at present. I admit the spontaneous origin of non- specific diseases, which when once developed may be propagated by contact, under circumstances to which I shall hereafter allude. In respect to the second order of venereal diseases, or specific affec- tions,f I can only now assert, (and must refer for proof to the subsequent chapters,) that we have insufficient evidence to prove that syphilis, properly so called, can arise spontaneously ; all the experiments made to produce it de novo have completely failed ; and a careful investigation of the disease shows, on the contrary, that it has been contracted from a person who has himself contracted it from another individual, and it is in this way only that the disease is now propagated. I hesi- tate in admitting the spontaneous origin of this form, or of syphilis, properly so called. Cases every now and then occur which have a great tendency to shake the opinions of those whose faith is not founded on a com- prehensive knowledge of the nature of ulcerations of the genital organs. I will cite one instance, which might be quoted as a strong] corroboration of the belief that syphilis may arise de novo even in this, the nineteenth century. During the month of January, 1849, a little girll was brought into Queen’s Ward, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, under the care of Mr. Lawrence ; the little patient’s genital organs, buttocks, andj thighs were covered with unhealthy-looking ulcers, varying in size from! a split-pea to a sixpence; in some places distinct, in others confluent.! No violence had been offered the little girl, nor was there any reason! to suspect that she had been infected. The child was pale, haggard,! and had been subject to much privation ; she was then in a filthy state, the commonest attention to cleanliness not having been employed by| her parents. To the unpracticed eye this was a case of syphilis,! originating in dirt and filth, and would to the novice in no respec<| differ from the disease in those unfortunate creatures who gain then * By the terra non-specific affections I mean diseases, the consequence of sexual inter iii course, depending upon common causes, and not on any special one; as, for examplejf gonorrhoea, &c. f By this term are meant those affections which depend on a special principle, distinc||Ii!i;p from all the ordinary morbid causes, such as chancre.