A treatise on syphilis in which the history, symptoms, and method of treating every form of that disease are fully considered / By John Bacot.

  • Bacot, John, 1780-1870.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on syphilis in which the history, symptoms, and method of treating every form of that disease are fully considered / By John Bacot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    diseases arising fioin sexual intercourse, and lie com- mences witli excoriation and erysi])elas; perlia])s it would have been as well not to have included these in this division, because they may happen indejiendently of sexual connexion ; but whilst making this remark, I cannot refrain from praising the accuracy with which these several aftections are described, and the great good that must arise from an attentive study of their several varieties. Yet these are confessedly not syphi- litic ; they are followed by no after consequences ; and here is the great distinctive mark which separates this class of diseases from syphilis. The ulcers which Mr. Evans describes as leading to secondary symptoms are the raised ulcer of the prepuce ; and a second, which he considers of a spurious kind; the first he calls venerola vulgaris, the latter venerola superficial is, the third he denominates venerola indurata, from its great surrounding hardness. Now it is remarkable that though all these sores are described as if they were distinct and different in their essence, they all com- mence with a pustule, and, in fact, are only varieties of each other, the difference being more one of greater or less rapidity in the progress of the different stages than any thing else ; they are all attended with derange- ment of health, highly aggravated by the incautious or free use of mercury, but without it is employed, consti- tutional symptoms, to a certain extent, are described as being very frequent. Now, when we find the author subdividing the first of these sores into four stages, that the appearance in each stage is different, that even the situation of the sore causes a change of aspect, that it is sometimes circular, at others irregular, that the colour even is not always one and the same ; at the reflection of the prepuce it is often excavated, and then there is a great deal of hardness about it*, whilst, again, upon the frasnum it has not this cupped appear- ance, but on the contrary is so little concave as to leave its real nature doubtful ; when, I say, these and other discrepancies are taken into the account, we find but little reason to congratulate ourselves upon ])os- sessing an accurate knowledge of this class of sores, r 3