Concerning aneurysms : the Gordon Bell memorial lecture / by Oskar Klotz.

  • Oskar Klotz
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Concerning aneurysms : the Gordon Bell memorial lecture / by Oskar Klotz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was found in Switzerland and Germany. It spread to Holland in 1496 and to England in 1497. Wherever the disease made its first appearance, its virulence appears to have been high. It was truly epidemic and was thought by the people to be a heaven-sent plague. In many places laws were made banishing the infected from their midst. Thus within a period of less than ten years this pestilence had found firm root in Europe and had spread to a remarkable degree among all classes of people. The literature is rich in description of the many odious deformities which resulted from the infection, and syphilis appears to have been one of the most important maladies of the sixteenth century. We are, therefore, not surprised to find that aneurysm, particularly the internal aneurysm, was brought to the attention of the reawakened medical world. Syphilis could not have made its appearance in Europe at a more favourable time to bequeath us accurate accounts of epidemic lues and its many secondary processes. Vesalius, Fernelius, Pare, and Fracastorius were all attracted to a discussion of the new and mysterious malady and found evidence, during the first plague, of its association with internal aneurysm. Fracastorius, the Veronese physician (1530), labelled the new disease with the name “syphilis”, in a poem which he dedicated to Cardinal Bembo. There are not a few who deny the American origin of syphilis. The record of Las Casas is discounted as the ex¬ aggerated ramblings of an octogenarian priest who was unable to differentiate venereal disease. His suggestion that the Indians found a cure in the wood of the guiac tree lends support to the belief that more than one disease was included in his discussion. The Codex of de Isla is also brought into question, both as to the date of its publication, and the veracity of his statements claiming intimacy with the sailors of Columbus. Then again, it is claimed that an authentic letter of Peter Martyr, dated 1488, speaks of the “Morbus Gallicus”. About this document there has also arisen a heated argument concerning the correctness of the date. However, all this discussion about the value of
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