Letter to His Grace the Duke of Somerset ... relative to the question is there a syphilitic virus? / by David Macloughlin.

Date:
[1864]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to His Grace the Duke of Somerset ... relative to the question is there a syphilitic virus? / by David Macloughlin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    P.S.—Previously to my quitting London in February lastj I placed before the Chairman, for examination, the names of gentle- men who, though not going the length with myself that there is no such thing as a specific syphilitic virus, yet actually prove it by the treatment they pursue. On my return to London, on the following April, I found that not one of these gentlemen had been examined! The Medical Committee, appointed to inquire if there is or not a syphilitic virus, were still continuing to examine gentlemen who, like themselves, assume that there is a syphilitic virus, without being able to point out one symptom, pathognomonic of a syphilitic virus! It was evident that this Committee were determined not to call before them gentlemen who had a doubt as to the existence of a syphilitic virus. Therefore I took the liberty to address a letter to the Admiralty on the 20th April, 1865, a copy of which will be found at No. 5 in the Appendix; and also in the Appendix No. 6 is the copy of a letter which 1 received from the Admiralty in answer to mine. It now remains to be seen if the Medical Committee, will awake to a sense of their duty, and prove themselves equal to the confi- dence reposed in them by the Government, by frankly, honestly, and scientifically inquiring if there is, or not, a syphilitic virus.