On prophylactic & curative syphilization / by Victor de Méric.

  • Méric, Victor de, 1811-1876.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On prophylactic & curative syphilization / by Victor de Méric. 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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    new infection, the effect of which may, as far as we know, be excessively prejudicial instead of conferring any benefit. It has, nevertheless, been recently proposed to inoculate virulent matter again and again, in order to cure both primary and secondary symptoms, or shield individuals who have never had syphilis from the effects of a casual infection. But when we inquire more closely into the wild theories which have of late been broached, we find that there are four different systems of inoculation, or isopathy, now before the profession. The first—the author of which is M. Diday, of Lyons, advocates a kind of vaccination; the second, which belongs to M. Laval, a young practitioner of Paris, restricts itself to the cure of secondary symptoms; the third, proposed by M. Auzias Turenne, is the so-called prophylactic and cura- tive syphilization; and the fourth, brought forward by M. Sperino, of Turin, has much similarity with the third, differ- ing principally in the manner of making the inoculations. It should likewise be mentioned that ]\I. Thiry, of Brussels, has tried inoculations of the matter of chancre to cure cancer. This attempt has not been constructed into a regular system, and does not, therefore, come under the four heads just men tinned. I shall presently devote a few words to M. Thiry’s views, and will now proceed to examine the four methods of syphUization. The first system, that of M. Diday, of Lyons, is very far from calling for the complete repudiation which syphilization, properly so termed, fully deserves. M. Diday was a pupil of AL Ricord, and has upheld his master’s doctrines with great talent at the Venereal Hospital of Lyons, of which he has been surgeon. Like all those practitioners who frequently come in contact with syphilitic patients, he was struck and grieved at the rapid manner in which the disease spreads, and bethought himself, since the most highly recommended prophylactics are of little avail, whether syphilis might not have its cow-pox as well as variola. It was not, however, among the inferior animals that he sought for his preserva- tive, but he fancied that the syphilitic virus, very much a3