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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![Acton advises {op. cit p. 429) tliat tlie female, under these circum- stances, should be treated exactly as if she were in an unimpreg- nated state. Observations on a large scale, he observes, have taught me that the fears of the surgeon who dreads to give the jjregnant woman mercury, are chimerical. Drs. Beatty, Evory, Kennedy, and Egan, maintain that abortion may be prevented, and a healthy child insured, by a judicious mercurial treatment during pregnancy. (Egan, op. cit. p. 291.)—Gr. 0. B.] The father should be treated precisely in the same manner, that is, in accordance with the principles of therapeutics which I have laid down. The question on which writers on syi;*!!!] is are divided, is, whether in the absence of all evidences of the disease, tlie father should be subjected to treatment simply because the mother may have miscarried. It is necessary to distinguish here, if the father has really had syphilis, if the foetus bears marks of this diathesis, there should be no hesitation in submitting the father to treatment; for we know that the disease may remain for a long time latent, as. is proved by the relapses after long intervals. Indeed, between the two manifestations of the disease, we see persons enjoying the uest of health, and bearing on their body no traces of the diathesis; but the latter does not the less exist; it will probably reappear at a later period on the same individual, his child or his wife. We should be guarded when the father assures us that he has never been syphilitic, except when we know that he has some particular object in deceiving us. In such a case, the shrevv^dness of the physician, and the confidence which he knows how to inspire in the mind of the father, may be of great service to the famii_y. When a child is born of syphilitic parents, should the father be- treated ? No, if there are no marks upon him of the disease; for- it has been proved that venereal parents have begotten healthy children, which have been raised, without even sho\ving the least symptom of syphilis. But children of such an origin should be carefully watched, in order that they may be properly treated upon the very first manifestations of the disease. They should not suckle their mother, for, whatever may be the opinions entertained as to the alteration of the milk, it is acknowledged that it is better that they should be nourished by a woman free from the disease. Indeed, if the mother's milk is not syphilitic, if it is impossible for it to infect the child (which is not established), it may suffer some other change, from the contamination of the system, so as to afford imperfect nourishment to the child, or favor the development of a diathesis, the germ of which might have been destroyed by a more healthy aliment. There are mothers, who, from economy or un- easiness of their child, use the sucking bottle instead of committing it to the care of a nurse. This, especially in cities, is bad practice. Children, I repeat, of such an origin, should be carefully watched, and placed in the best possible hygienic conditions. IStow, as ali- mentation is here the basis of hygiene, a good nurse should be selected for the child. Should the child be born with symptoms of syphilis, or if these symptoms appear shortly after birth, it must, be subjected to treatment, for, as I have already stated, if we do 31](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21082340_0491.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
