A treatise on syphilis in new-born children and infants at the breast / by P. Diday ; translated by G. Whitley.

  • Diday, P. (Paul), 1812-1894.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on syphilis in new-born children and infants at the breast / by P. Diday ; translated by G. Whitley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    suspicion of the existence of some general infection. The modifi- cation of the voice here alluded to depends, in my opinion, upon the development of mucous tubercles or a simple erythema in the neighbourhood of the aryteno-epiglottidean ligaments. It is analogous to a si'^ihilitic dysphonia sometimes observed in adults at a corresponding period, i. e., coincidently with the first outbreak of secondary symptoms. Of this affection I have endeavoured to particularise the seat and the origin, and to its study I propose to devote a separate work. The physiognomy of these lesions is the same in the moutli: a superficial ulcer maintaining that character; always appearing in the shape of a circle, a crescent, a horseshoe, or an ellipse; of a diphtheritic white colour, becoming red only when on the point of healing; such are the characteristics of this form of ulceration. The irregidarly circular shape is sometimes the result, not of a single ulcer, but of several grouping themselves in such a manner as to produce it. It is especially on the inner surface of the lips that we cau form a clear idea of this characteristic tendency. A single glance generally suftices to recognise both the existence and the nature of the change, but if it is more deej)ly situated, the examination may become very difficult or even impossible. The experienced practitioner knows, it is true, how to take advantage of the moment at which the child cries, and by placing it in a good light and cpiickly depressing the tongue with a small spoon, generally succeeds in obtaining a view of the back part of the mouth. But this manoeuvre, so difficult even in the adult who lends himself to it, is far more embarrassing in a child who resists, and often meets with encouragement to do so in the iU-advised tenderness of its parents. iUthough I liave examined, or rather because I have examined, a great number of infants at the breast, I consider myself justified, without fear of contradiction from those accustomed to such researches, in propounding the following axiom: The practitioner can never answer for the non-existence of lesions in the posterior part of the mouth of a new-horn child. If we bear in mind that mucous patches sometimes affect only one side of the isthmus of the tliroat, and if we take into consi- deration the great number of nurses really infected by children whom the practitioner has declared and certified to be exempt from 5