Summary of Mr. Carmichael's views of the venereal cases in which mercury is admissible or is not admissible.

  • Richard Carmichael
Date:
1838
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Summary of Mr. Carmichael's views of the venereal cases in which mercury is admissible or is not admissible. 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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    it is for j)rejudiced or superficial observers to overlook, either intentionally or unintentionally, the connexion which exists be- tween particular forms of primary, with particular forms of se- condary eruptions. If the distinctive characters of venereal symptoms, both primary and secondary, did not carry with them a practical bearing of the utmost importance, I should not trou- ble my reader by calling his attention to them ; but I have been for years in the habit of pointing them out to the pupils at the bed-side of the patients, and showing the great use in practice, which a thorough acquaintance with them affords. However, as long as surgeons are impressed with the belief in the doctrine of the unity of the venereal poison, and that there is only one cure for it—mercury, such distinctions, in a practical point of view, are totally useless, and in their estimation only calculated to gratify an innocent curiosity. It surprises me, at least, not a little, to find the connexion which exists between the primary phagedenic ulcer, and the se- condary symptoms, rupia and tubercles, spreading into deep ul- cers—extensive ulcerations of the fauces—foul ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose, with caries of its bones, and the other alarming and disgusting chain of symptoms which I have elsewhere described as appertaining to the phagedenic vene- real disease—it surprises me, I say, that this connexion has not been more universally acknowledged, as well as the injurious effects of mercury upon it. For I may safely say, that in the Richmond Surgical Hospital we are never without examples of these facts, which are therefore as familiar to the pupils of that institution as any other surgical phenomena. Happening to cast my eye over the last Number of the Me- dical Gazette, (No. 16, for January 13th), I found a clini- ' cal lecture of my friend Mr. Laurence on Venereal Diseases. The very first case he lectures on is as strong an instance, de- tailing the presence of the primary ulcer, and the constitutional symptoms which it occasions, together with the ill effects of mer- cury upon both, as I could possibly wish to adduce from the re-
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