Tattooing as a means of communicating syphilis : an investigation of twenty-two cases exposed to inoculation with the virus of mucous patches, in fifteen of which syphilis followed / by F.F. Maury and C.W. Dulles.

F. F. Maury

Date:: 1878

Credit: Tattooing as a means of communicating syphilis : an investigation of twenty-two cases exposed to inoculation with the virus of mucous patches, in fifteen of which syphilis followed / by F.F. Maury and C.W. Dulles. 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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$[Extracted from the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for January, 1878.] . '1- TATTOOING AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATING SYPHILIS; AN. INVESTIGATION OF TWENTY-TWO CASES EXPOSED TO INOCULATION WITH THE VIRUS OF MUCOUS PATCHES, IN FIFTEEN OF WHICH SYPHILIS FOLLOWED. By F. F. MAURY, M.D., LECTURER ON VENEREAL DISEASES AT THE JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE, ATTENDING SURGEON TO THE PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL J AND C. W. DULLES, M.D., LATE INTERNE AT THE PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL. In the beginning of September, 1877, a man presented himself in Dr. Maury’s wards in the Philadelphia Hospital, having upon his. arm a sore which had the characteristics of a chancre, and suffering from other evi- dences of constitutional syphilis. The chancre was situated upon a tat- tooed figure, which had been placed there about two and a half months before, by a “professional tattooer who moistened his pigments in whole or in part by inserting in his mouth the needles he used. So interesting a matter at once engaged earnest attention, and led to the investigation, first, of this one case, and afterwards of others in this city and in Reading, where such extensive tattooing had been done that the physicians in the town had had their attention attracted to its evil results, and were glad to co-operate with us in determining their nature and extent.1 . Wlth rcSarfI to the latter point, however, we have not been able to ar- rive at any, even approximate, conclusion. The number infected must be mucli larger than that which we have been able to reach. For six months has this tattooer had lesions, which are hereafter described, and during all that time been doing his work whenever he had an opportunity, in Phila- delphia, Reading, Jersey City, and New York ; and the majority of those tattooed must have received the seeds of his disease. shall ,, T n : C(lff0 with thanks °«r obligation to Doctors Mar- ■ , Kalbach, Kuhn, Recscr, Ammon, Luther, and Weidman, of Reading- for facili- tating our investigations in the latter city; and to Doctors Kerr ami \ >„i ,,5.’ • . at the Philadelphia Hospital, for assistance in different ways. ' L S°mternes$