On the physiology of syphilitic infection / by Fessenden N. Otis.

  • Otis, Fessenden N. (Fessenden Nott), 1825-1900.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiology of syphilitic infection / by Fessenden N. Otis. 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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    worthy difference appears to have occurred from the employ- ment of different kinds of virus. In the four clinical cases subsequently quoted, there appears a difference of over 70 days in the periods of incubation From whence comes this remarkable lack of uniformity in processes apparently similar, under conditions practically the same? Shall it be referred to constitutional idiosyncrasy alone ? During the late civil Avar in this country, Dr. C. J., a dis- tinguished surgeon of the Confederacy, was called upon to amputate the limb of a soldier Avho was at the time the sub- ject of a secondary syphilitic eruption. During the operation the extremity of the right fore finger of the surgeon was acci- dentally pricked by a spicula of bone. On the following day. a red line was observed, streaking from the wound, up the arm, and extending to the cor- responding axilla. Swelling of the axillary glands followed within twenty-four hours from the occurrence of the accident. The Avound of the finger healed quickly and naturally ; the line of inflammation (evidently that of a lymphatic vessel), ex- tending from the wound to the axilla, soon disappeared, but the axillary glands continued enlarged, though painless, until, at the end of the sixth Aveek from the receipt of the wound of the finger, a distinct roseolous eruption appeared, thickly dis- tributed over the breast, back and arms. The syphilitic char- acter of the disease was recognized, and the doctor put him- self at once upon a course of mercurial treatment. Six months subsequent to the occurrence of the roseola, several nodes appeared on the doctor’s tibia?, and during the following year, spots ofAvell characterized tertiary syphilitic impetigo made their appearance on his body, which finally disappeared under the administration of the iodide of po- tassium. Tavo cases are reported to me by Dr. R. W. Taylcr as occur- ring at the New York Dispensary during the past year, one in which the initial lesion made its appearance within tAventy-four hours after connection, and in which a characteristic indura- tion Avas developed within four days, followed in six weeks by a roseola, erythema of the fauces, etc. ; a second Avhere the in-