A treatise on venereal diseases / by A. Vidal (de Cassis) ; translated, with annotations, by George C. Blackman.
- Auguste Vidal de Cassis
- Date:
- 1874
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on venereal diseases / by A. Vidal (de Cassis) ; translated, with annotations, by George C. Blackman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![13 INTliOL»UCTIO]S. farcy, blended witli sypTiilis, have been supposed to bave given to the scourge of tbe fifteenth century the fearful character whicli it assumed. A strong argument in favor of this hypothesis, is, that the worst cases of syphilis observed at the present day, are found among the unfortunate beings who are compelled to suffer great privations, or who are laboring under a strumous or scorbu tic diathesis. Under these circumstances, we som.etimes find re- produced more than one feature in the horrible picture furnished by the fifteenth century: for example, I have at present undei my care an excessively feeble young man, of a scrofulous habit, whose body is covered with pustules, whilst his lower extremities ure affected with rupia, deeply excavated ecthyma, with cracked black crusts. Under these scabs, ulcerations have burrowed, some of which have taken the serpiginous form, and are the seat of atrocious pains. Has this case not more than one feature in com- mon with the scourge of the fifteenth century, which has been de- nominated morbus pustularum ? The pathognomonic signs of sy- philis become more distinct and easy of recognition, in proportion as we isolate them from the diseases with which they were com- plicated, and from the epidemic influences by which they were modified. Then indeed, we may collect the elements of syphilis, .and establish a form of disease entitled to a scientific nomencla- ture. In alluding to the earliest period in the history of the vene- real disease, I have stated, that it could then boast neither of name, therapeutics, nor of books; but from the commencement of the sixteenth century, it has received many names, has had a sjDecial. therapeutics, and has given rise to innumerable volumes. Sixteenth Century.—A great genius now appears; his name forms an epoch; it is Eernel. Now a specific cause is discovered, the local and general symptoms are recognized. True, in 1552 James Bethemont had furnished Fernel with a hint of the fact; and Para- celsus, during the prevalence of the epidemic had seized upon the -symptoms peculiar to syphilis, with the design of forming a new species in pathology. But Fernel will always maintain his place at the head of the truly scientific epoch of syphilis, and this too, with the greater justice as subsequent ages have made but few additions to his teachings. Not only did Fernel scientifically es- tablish the necessity, and the existence of a specific cause, but he traced it from a diseased to a sound person ; he demonstrated its transmissibility by different modes of contact, especially by the venereal act, whence the name of Lues Veneris. The disease had its name, and its cause; symptoms were recognized and de- scribed ; they were the primitive, and the consecutive or constitu- tional symptoms; in fine, the application of the poison, its local effects and general results, were traced with a masterly hand by Fernel. But, when he attempted to classify the effects of the virus according to the depth which it had invaded, when he had the presumption to establish four varieties of the malady, according as it progressively attacked the four layers of tissue between ihe skin and the bone ; then, and then only, was he misled, as are all those who would imitate him, and number the varietV.s of the disease.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21082340_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
