On dactylitis syphilitica, with observations on syphilitic lesions of the joints / by R.W. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Robert W. (Robert William), 1842-1908.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On dactylitis syphilitica, with observations on syphilitic lesions of the joints / by R.W. Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    similar manner the second phalangeal hone of the ring finger had been reduced to about a fourth part of the length of the same bone on the left hand, the extremity of the finger scarcely reaching to the last joint of that of the middle finger. The loss of substance was confined entirely to the phalangeal bone, though the joint between the second and third phalanges was somewhat swollen and stiffened. (See fig. 8.) There was no trace of any scar about the fingers, and the patient declared the deformity had supervened on an attack of rheumatism. The patient’s father, a strong, healthy man, died after an illness of a few days, aged 50. The mother died at 46, after having been ill three months. He has six brothers and a sister living, all in good health. One brother died at 22, probably of phthisis. He had himself always enjoyed good health, until a few years back. Twenty years ago he had contracted chancre, and had afterwards twice had gonorrhoea; but he had never discovered any eruption, nor had he suffered from sore throat. About February, 1862, while engaged during a dark night on outpost-duty with the army before Vicksburg, he received a violent blow with a musket over the face, break- ing the nasal bone, and knocking out a tooth. Two years afterward a piece of bone came out, leaving the peculiar flattening of the nasal arch, so often seen in syphilis. He remained in the army, doing duty, until July 4th, 1864, when he was discharged. In the latter part of the same year he was attacked with rheumatism. The knees, the ankle, and the fore and ring fingers of the right hand were very much swollen, the swelling in the fingers being greatest over the first phalanx of the index and the second of the ring finger. It was attended with some pain and tenderness, but the pain was worst in the length of the tibiae, particularly of the right, and in the lower fifth of the right ulna and radius, and was aggravated at night. It was relieved by the iodide of potassium, but the swelling of the fingers persisted. The nocturnal pains recurred from time to time during the en- suing two years, and still sometimes trouble him, but are always relieved directly by the iodide of potassium. The swelling of the fingers dimin- ished slightly, and then increased again at intervals of two or three months, but finally subsided after having continued, in all, over two years, leaving the fingers in their present condition. There was never any dis- charge, nor was the skin of the affected fingers ever broken. Aeohambault’s Case is, of its kind, unique. It occurred as an early lesion of hereditary syphilis. An infant, whose mother had tertiary syphilis, had mucous patches and an enlargement of the last phalanges of the fingers. Being at first regarded as false spina ventosa, it was unsuccessfully treated with anti-strumous remedies; but, when mercury was given, the mucous patches soon disappeared, and the bones were reduced to their normal size. An analysis of these cases enables ns to divide them into