On the prevention of syphilis in the navy / by Dr. Dickson.

Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the prevention of syphilis in the navy / by Dr. Dickson. 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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    race, and the local executive is less fettered by constitutional usages, similar laws were introduced, and with great benefit to the physical health of the community. The medical officers of our army and navy, whose lot it often is to sojourn in these settlements, had frequent oppor- tunities of testing the efficiency of such enactments for con- trolling disease among the men under their charge. They could draw comparisons, not always to the advantage of their own country. For it is notorious that, notwithstanding our vast progress in material civilisation, the dijSferent forms of venereal disease are as rife, if not as destructive, and infest all classes of society to as great a degree as in any former period of our history. In some instances the hygienic arrangements that expe- rience had found effectual abroad could not bear transplant- ing. Our dense population and its habits of locomotion would render nugatory all attempts at a general surveil- lance. The difference in manners and notions of propriety is too decided, and, above all, the love of that personal free- dom which all enjoy in England is too strong to be easily or soon subdued. The obstacles to the adoption and naturalisa- tion of a thorough^' system of medical police would seem to be, for the present at least, insuperable. Yet some mo- dification of these restrictions, adapted to our insular ideas, might be practicable ; and any check, however slight, to the rank growth and propagation of so dire a poison must be desirable. It is curious to note the differences that obtain in the sanitary administration of various localities and to mark their results. Information on such points may occasionally be instructive or suggestive. Viewed in this light, any con- tribution to our stock of knowledge, however humble, may be acceptable, provided it be based on practical experience, and does not seek to prove too much. I purpose, therefore, without further apology, to lay before you a short account of a formidable outbreak of venereal disease which came under my immediate observation, when staff surgeon ot the fleet in China, a few years ago. This outbreak was formid- able rather from the number than from any pathological peculiarity of the cases, and was more especially remark able from the circumstance, that at the time and place these dis- eases were contracted, a sanitary police existed, well-organ- ised, fairly paid, and honestly administered,—as effective, in short, as we could hope to find in any large seaport town. I shall confine my remarks to the vessel which was directly in