A treatise on syphilis in new-born children and infants at the breast / by P. Diday ; translated by G. Whitley.

  • Charles-Paul Diday
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on syphilis in new-born children and infants at the breast / by P. Diday ; translated by G. Whitley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    ON SYP111T,]S IN NEW-BORN CIHEUREN. According to Mahon, Matliiolus (153C) ^vas the first Avriter n ho mentioned the existence of syphilis in neAv-born infants. IIoaa'- ever, toAA'ards the end of the fifteenth century, Gaspard Torella (1498) AA'rote : In pueris lactantibus priina infectio apparet in ore ant in facie; et hoc accidit propter mammas infectas, ant faciein, ant os nntricis, sen alicnjus alterins. Solent enim nutriccs saepins infantes oscnlari, et saepins Aodi infantem infectnm hoc morbo mnltas nntrices intecisse.^^ In this passage he makes no allusion to the donbtfnl infection by the milk. The expression “propter mammas infectas^' clearly proA'es that he admits of no transmis- sion except by the contact of a local sore in the nnr.se AA'ith some part of the body of her suckling. Catanens (150o) belicA'^ed firmly in the infections intluence of the nnrse s milk, and advised that infants should not be intrnsted to snch as had had the French, disease, even if they Avere perfectly enred of it; for, he adds, it is very apt to recur. The folloAifing very explicit phrase of his has often been quoted: Tidimus plnres infantulos lactantes, tali morbo iufectos, plnres nntrices infecisse.'’’ But in comjiaring it Avith that Avhich Ave have just borroA\ ed from Torella, it is evident that Cataneus, if he really observed snch facts, confined himself, in the description of them, to copying the text of his predecessor. George Vella (1508) stiU believed in contamination by the nurse exclusively. Led by induction, hoAvever, he surmised another source of poisoning, and asked himself: “ Quare autem parentes non generant prolem infectam, cum materia quae subjicitur pro generatione spermatis sit infecta?'’'’ Unfortunately his experience did not yet sutfi.ee to mature these doubts, and he Avas content, in regard to the point at issue, Avith this negative solution of them : “ Nisi esset quod, si subjicitur, non subjicitur immediate, sed mediate, et per plures transmissiones purificatur et a malitia ilia expoliatur.” Conrad Reitterius (1508) in his ode addressed to the Ahrgin Mary, to beseech her to arrest the ravages of this malady, confines himself to the mention of infection by nurses : “ Non puer tutus teiieris in annis, Queni snse lactat geuctricis uber.” Paracelsus (1529) AA'as the first Avho asserted positiA'ely the reality of the most usual mode of the propagation of the malady, by spe-
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