Syphilis of the innocent : a study of the social effects of syphilis on the family and the community with 152 illustrative cases made under a grant from the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board / by Harry C. Solomon and Maida Herman Solomon.

  • Solomon, Harry C. (Harry Caesar), 1889-1982.
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Syphilis of the innocent : a study of the social effects of syphilis on the family and the community with 152 illustrative cases made under a grant from the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board / by Harry C. Solomon and Maida Herman Solomon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2 SYPHILIS OF THE INNOCENT treponemata may then be carried over to the body of a second person. Sexual intercourse is the most frequent method by which the disease is spread, but there are many instances of extragenital infection. For some little time there is no indi¬ cation that anything has happened. Then at the end of from three to six weeks there occurs what is known as a chancre, or primary sore. The period from the moment that the treponemata enter the body until the appearance of this sore is known as the incubation period. During the incubation period the treponemata луЬ1сЬ have entered the body begin to multiply. They make their way through the lymphatic vessels which drain the locus at which they entered and reach the blood stream by which they are carried throughout the body. Thus, during this incubation period, although the patient knows of nothing untoAvard, his body is being invaded by numerous organisms. Finally, after several weeks, the local reaction appears, and with its development the so-called primary period of the disease begins. This local reaction characteristically takes the form of a painless papule, which slowly increases in size, reaching, ordinarily, the dimensions of a small pea. It is prone to assume a crater-like shape, and with the surrounding tissue to become indurated. Unless it is then secondarily infected by some pus-producing organism, there is no purulent exudate, but only a thin serous excretion. The glands which drain this region shortly become enlarged and fairly hard. It is rare, indeed, that they become sec¬ ondarily infected. Thus, if the sOre is on the genitals, the glands in the groin will become easily palpable and have a shot-like hardness. If the chancre is on the lip, the glands under the chin will become sM^llen. Diagnosis of Primary Stage by Inspection.—The primary sore is rarely painful or in itself a serious symptom. Occa¬ sionally it becomes infected and leads to grave and unpleasant consequences. Such infected chancres are spoken of as phagedenic, and a considerable amount of local damage may be done. Ordinarily the chancre will begin to disappear, with or without treatment, after the third or fourth week. It slowly recedes in size, and soon becomes only a scar. If