Lectures on venereal and other diseases arising from sexual intercourse : delivered in the summer of 1847 at the Hôpital du Midi, Paris / by M. Ricord ; reported and translated by Victor de Méric.

  • Ricord, Ph., 1800-1889.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on venereal and other diseases arising from sexual intercourse : delivered in the summer of 1847 at the Hôpital du Midi, Paris / by M. Ricord ; reported and translated by Victor de Méric. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Second order.—Chancre, which is the type of the virulent order, invariably affects the ulcerative form ; it arises from a specific cause, and from a virus which has definite characters ; it develops itself wherever it has been inoculated, either on mucous membranes or the skin ; it does not appear spontaneously in man, and finds no one refractory to his action ; it contami- nates the system so as to alter its natural disposi- tion, and establishes a new diathesis—viz., a morbid tendency in the constitution to produce accidents of a specific character ; it is transmissible by heredity, and brings all the sympathies of the system into play, being, in this respect, under the influence of agents quite the opposite to those we noticed in the first order; and lastly, in most cases it yields to mer- cury. Such are the general characters of these two orders of diseases ; but certain authors have included in the class of venereal affections various appearances which they looked upon as syphilitic manifestations—viz., glandular enlargements, constitutional buboes, vege- tations, &c. We shall study these lesions very care- fully, so as to distinguish them from truly venereal accidents. I shall also take care to mention the effects produced by the administration of certain sub- stances which have been mistaken for syphilitic phe- nomena—for instance, the roseola resulting from co- paiba, the eruptions produced by the introduction of mercury or preparations of iodine into the system. We shall likewise perceive, in the course of our investigations, that venereal diseases present compli- cations which are apt to modify their form, course, &c.; they may complicate other affections, or be them- selves altered by intercurrent maladies. So that I may fearlessly assert, that a thorough knowledge of all other diseases is eminently necessary in order to study syphilis effectually; and I likewise repudiate the name of special practitioner, which appella-