Prostitution, in relation to public health : forming the introductory chapter to the second edition of the Treatise on syphilis / by William Acton.

  • Acton, William, 1813-1875.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution, in relation to public health : forming the introductory chapter to the second edition of the Treatise on syphilis / by William Acton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/24 (page 5)
    livelihood in the streets ; the ulcerations were as numerous, their aspect similar, and their character as well defined as in the ordinary cases of syphilis which we meet with in prostitutes. Mr. Lawrence, however, ordered the child a warm-bath, applied a poultice to the affected parts, prescribed good food and quinine, and in a few days the sores became quite clean, the sloughs having disappeared; we then remarked about twenty healthy-looking granulating sores, which no longer had the slightest analogy with syphilis, and the little girl rapidly got well ; but the case bore a striking analogy with that of a prostitute brought into the hospital at the same time, suffering from gonorrhoea and large ulcer- ations around the vagina. Cleanliness in this case was enjoined, and here likewise the ulcers, depending only on a simple affection, in a few days presented the same clean healthy surface, showing what discharge and filth will do. I would ask the reader to consider what might have happened if suspicion had attached itself to any man seen in company with this little girl ? Syphilis, the disease might have been called as correctly as simi- lar affections have been often designated, and supposing mercury instead jof quinine had been used, we should then have seen one of those dreadful instances which too often occur, of error of diagnosis compli- cated with error of treatment, instances which are occasionally advanced to prove the origin of syphilis in the present day. In common with many previous writers, I admit my ignorance when this disease, syphilis, began. It can be traced as far back as the pear 1494, and on this point there is little difference of opinion ; pre- viously to that year, authors are not agreed : for my own part, I believe that a disease * similar to syphilis was known previously to * Little doubt can exist that the leprosy so common formerly in Europe, and which las almost disappeared, consisted of what we now call secondary -symptoms. I night mention many authors to support this assertion, but one perhaps will suffice. Tohn of Gaddesden, who wrote in 1305, and who was a fellow of Merton College, Ixford, thus alludes to the possibility of contracting the disease from leprous women. ‘ Ille qui concubuit cum muliere cum qua coivit leprosus puncturas intra carnem et :orium sentit, et aliquando calefactiones in toto corpore.”—Rosa Anglica. Pavia, 1492. Jar. 61. In the Library of the College of Surgeons. In Henry the Eighth’s time there were six leprous or lazar-houses near London—at Gnightsbridge, Hammersmith, Highgate, Kingsland, the Lock outside St. George’s Gate, nd at Mile End. Subsequently Lock Hospitals became the receptacles for syphilitic atients. In 1452, Ralph Holland, merchant tailor, in a will registered in the Prerogative Court, equeathed twenty shillings to the Lock Lazar House. “ Item lego leprosis de Loker xtra Barram Sti Georgii, 20 s.”—Weatherhead, p. 12.