On the relative influence of nature and art in the cure of syphilis / by Thomas Weeden Cooke.

  • Cooke, Thomas Weeden.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relative influence of nature and art in the cure of syphilis / by Thomas Weeden Cooke. 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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    the fibrous and osseous systems, chronic tubercular affections of the skin, or extensive ulcerations of the mucous cavities. The inoculations and clinical observations instituted by Ricord enabled him to show, as he conceived, which chancre was capable of infecting the whole system, and which was only local in its effects. Believing that he had established the fact that a soft chancre, which reproduced itself by inoculation, would not be followed by secondary symptoms, he treated this form of ulcer simply and successfully. The hard chancre he found incapable of transference by inoculation, and this was invariably succeeded by secondary symptoms, unless they could be arrested and prevented by the administration of mercury. Now, if this simple arrangement could be relied upon, the discovery would be the most practical and beneficial pathological improvement of modern times, excelling even in its importance the grand results obtained by Dr. Bright's investigations into the pathology of the kidney. But alas for human happiness, and alas for man's science, this beautiful theory, although having some considerable foundation, is but a thing of threads and patches—a royal ghost, it is true, but still a ghost, which must, and does, fade before the daylight of truth and experience. The explanation which this charming simplification of a theoretical chaos offered, of the success of the non-mercurial treatment, was balm to the hurt minds of those who followed the doctrines of Hunter, and Abernethy, and Colles with obsequious idleness. It was now plain that the venereal disease which had been cured without mercury, was not syphilis at all, and that the lively mineral was not only to be reinstated, but to be more than ever deified, if not by the master, at any rate by his pupils, as the only true specific for the veritable lues. Bow your heads, ye believers in the reparative powers of Nature, and let no man call himself surgeon
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