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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![I am still compelled to add one word in relation to tliat error •wLicli attributes the osteocopes to mercury. This error has here assumed a serious character, for it is true that we may find mer- cury in the bones, and it is reported that M. Bretonneau has observed these pains in |)atients not affected with the venereal dis- ease, but whose systems have absorbed much mercury. As to the cases of M. Bretonneau, I have been unable to find them; I can not therefore judge of tiieir value. Mercury has been discovered in precisely the bones which have never been the seat of any pain. It is known that workmen who are constantly exposed to mercu- rial emanations, do not suffer from osteocopes, and on the other hand, venereal patients who have abstained from mercury, have suffered in their bones and have had exostosis. Finally, these osseous pains and lesions have more than once been cured by mercury; for before the introduction of the iodide of potassium, it was particularly hy mercury that these accidents, peculiar to the last stages of syphilis, were combated. However, in order to omit nothing, I should add, that in a syphilitic patient who pre- sented cerebral symptoms, and who died after having taken much mercury, this metal was detected in the cerebral substance, (vid. the work of M. E-eynaud, p. 407.) II.—PERIOSTITIS AND OSTITIS. Periostitis, unaccompanied by ostitis, must be extremely rare, if it does really exist, for the periosteum being but the envelope of the bonCj it is difficult to comprehend how it should not participate in the affections of the former. The same regions, the same portions of the skeleton, are most generally affected both by periostitis and ostitis; thus the tibia, claviclQ, ulna, radius, cranium, sternum, metacarpal bones, and the portions of these bones nearest to the skin, [According to Mr. Stanley, the osseous node does not occur upon the cranium. So far does the pericranium differ from peri- osteum in its actions under the influence of disease, that under no circumstances does its tissue become ossified. When, from syphi- lis, isolated portions of the pericranium inflame, circumscribed swellings arise, which are hard and painless, when consisting only of the thickened pericraneum, but soft and tender when produced by serous or purulent effusion, either beneath the pericranium or into the cellular tissue covering it. In the latter case they have received the expressive designation of soft nodes. [Stanley on tlis Bones, Am. Ed., p. 271.)—G. C. B.] PERIOSTITIS. The tLimor formed in inflammation of the periosteum, periostosis. appears simultaneously with the pains already described, sometimes a few days after their first manifestation. This tumor, which](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21082340_0441.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
