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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![[Dr. Budd has reported in the Lond. Med. Gazette^ for May, 1842, three cases in which apoplexy occurred in the advanced stages of syphihs. These patients had been for some time affected with periostitis, and two of them had had a syphilitic eruption (rupia). Dr. B. says, it may admit of question, whether the apoplexy re- sulted from the immediate action of the syphilitic virus on the brain, or whether it was consequent on sj^philitic inflammation of the bones of the head. In connection with this subject, wc refer, with much pleasure, to the admirable papers by Dr. John Watson, of the New York Hospital, On some of the Remote Effects of Syphi- lis^'''' which were published in the first and fifth volumes of the New York Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences, (1843,1845.) Dr. W. has reported some eight cases of hemiplegia and epilepsy, result- ing from syphilitic disease of the cranial bones and envelopes, and .tubercular deposits in the substance of the brain itself. In one of .these cases, the patient, contrary to the advice of Dr. W., was tre- phined, his cerebral symptoms having been attributed to a blow on the head received some two years previously. He died some months afterwards; extensive changes were found to have taken place within the brain and its envelopes, and the deposits of yel- lowish dirty-white color in the former, Dr. W. regarded as syphilitic tubercle. The cases above mentioned, together with those re- ported by Mr. Inman [Lond. Med. Gazette.^ «l^uly, 1843), disprove the assertion of Sir Astley Cooper, that the brain, abdominal, and thoracic viscera, are incapable of being infected by the syphilitic poison. {On the Testis, 2d Lond. Ed., p. 166.) We regard Dr. Watson's contributions by far the most valuable yet made on this subject, for his remarks are founded on the autopsies made by himself—a. C. B.] XL—HEPATIC AFFECTIONS. Syphilitic affections of the liver in the infant have been carefully investigated by M. Grubler, He has found, as the anatomical lesion, a fibro-plastic induration, which may be partial or general. When I come to treat of infantile syphilis I shall carefully describe this -double lesion. In the Iconographie of M. Ricord (pi. 30) is represented a partial induration, a very remarkable nucleus in the liver of an adult. The subject, who had died from a deep-seated affection of the larynx, presented serious anatomical alterations of this organ. The liver, of medium size, was of the ordinary color and con- •sistence; on the convex surface of its lobe was found a tumor, perfectly round, as large as a walnut, somewhat prominent, and involving nearly the whole substance of the organ. This tumor, consisting of two parts, appeared to be surrounded by a kind of cyst; it was composed of a hard, dense, very homogeneous tissue, crackling a little under the knife, and offering no traces of vascu- larit}'-. It seemed to present a striking analogy with certain tumors of the cellular tissue, which are frequently observed in tertiary sj^philis. As to the symptomato] igy, it is stated in the report:](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21082340_0460.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
