On the relative influence of nature and art in the cure of syphilis / by Thomas Weeden Cooke.

  • Cooke, Thomas Weeden.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relative influence of nature and art in the cure of syphilis / by Thomas Weeden Cooke. 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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    all these cases, that the occasional decadence into a constitutional dyscrasia shall not be permitted to happen. I have already referred to the sulphate of copper, as being an appropriate stimu- lant to the ulcer, but in very irritable persons the black-wash is less stimulating, and in the event of there being much inflamma- tion around the sore, a lead lotion is still more soothing. The suppurating bubo, which at times accompanies the soft chancre, is troublesome enough, although not so sluggish in its progress, as is the bubo which attends a hard chancre. The inflammation is generally very aowte, and it runs its course so quickly, that time is saved by at once promoting suppuration, instead of adopting any of the many very abortive means sug- gested for staying its progress. If matter be induced to form quickly by warmth and poultices, the abscess may be evacuated, and it will soon heal; but if blisters, iodine, discutient lotions, &c, be employed ; in the greater number of instances, they will have proved useless for the purpose for which they were pre- scribed, and the promotion of suppuration will have to be carried out at last. It is impossible to shut one's eyes to the fact, that a suppuration of this kind must tend to eliminate from the system any materies morbi that may have been implanted therein. The phagedenic chancre, although not always, is frequently followed by secondary symptoms; but I think there are very few, if any, surgeons in the present day who would put such a patient under a prolonged course of mercury. This was not the case fifty years ago ; for we find Pearson advocating a mer- curial course in such cases, and repeating it until the poor patients were nearly moribund. Supporting treatment, with opium to allay irritability, is generally called for, and the local application most appropriate is a lotion composed of the per-