An address delivered at the opening of the section of diseases of children, at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in Liverpool, August 1883 / by Samuel Gee.

  • Gee, Samuel (Samuel Jones), 1839-1911.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address delivered at the opening of the section of diseases of children, at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in Liverpool, August 1883 / by Samuel Gee. 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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    namely, '• The Poke of Ckildcrnc, composed ny Thomas f'hayer, studiouse in Philosophic and 1'hysicke,” published in 1544, This is that same Phayer who is better known as a translator of a part of the dineid. It is clear that Phayer’s book is founded upon Ehazes, who is referred to in several places, and in one is spoken of as “ ltasis, a solemne practicioner among phisicions.” But Phayer’s list of diseases is fuller than that of Khazes, and perliaps it will not be found wearisome to read the heads of the sundry chapters of Phayer’s little book. Tiie sixteenth century was life in Latin poetry, and even in medi- cine the poets found work for their muses. You all know the name of Fracastorius, the author of the poem called Syphilis, in three books. ([ ma,v just say, in this place, that Paracelsus was the first to mention inherited syphilis, in 1529.) Fifty-four years after the appearance of Fracastorius’s poem—namely, in 1584— Gaucher de Sainle Marthe, or Scsevola Sammarthanus (as he Latin- ised his name), published a poem, also in three books, called Pcedo- trophia—that is to say, the rearing of children. The first book re- lates to the foetus, or, what is the same thing, to the management of pregnant women ; the second, to the management of sucklings ; and the third, to their diseases. Ste. Marthe was a French gentle- man, but not, as might be supposed, a physician. His merits as a Latin poet I will not pretend to gauge. Some have held his Pcedotrophia to fall not far short of the Georgies ; and it might be asked why the rearing of babies should sound more like burlesque in a poem than the rearing of corn, vines, and cattle. Be this as it may, the poem has been translated into English twice. The earlier translation is anonymous, and was published in 1710 ; the latter is by H. W. Tytler, M.D., and appeared in 1797. Tytler’s version is closer to the original, but dull; whilst there is a coarse vigour about the earlier translation which makes it amusing. Here I may just allude to an Italian poem upon the suckling of children, written about 1560, by Luigi Tansillo ; the title, La Balia, or The Nurse; and it was deemed worthy of translation by the eminent citizen of Liverpool, William Eoscoe. The second edition, which I possess, bears date 1800. The author denounces wet-nurses, and exhorts the Italian ladies themselves to suckle their children. Leaving this laureate fraternity of poets, let me speak of a little book entitled “ Be Morbis Puerorum, or, a Treatise of tlw Diseases of Children, etc. By Robert Pemell, Practitioner in Physick at Cranebrooke in Kent. May the 29, 1653.” He, no doubt, practised among the rich clothiers who then dwelt in the Weald of Kent, and in Cranbrook especially. His book is an improvement upon Phayer’s, yet perhaps it is hardly too much to say that there had been no great increase of knowledge since the time of Ehazes, or even of Hippocrates. But better things were at hand. On the thirtieth page of this book, Pemell refers to “ a learned treatise set forth lately by three or four doctors,” on rickets. This was no other than Glisson’s “ Be Bacliitide sive Morbo Puerili, qui vulgo The Pickets dieitur, Trac- tatusfirst published in 1650. Glisson marks the beginning of a new epoch in the knowledge of childrens diseases, and may be said to hold a place like that of Vesalius in human anatomy, of Harvey in physiology, of Morgagni in morbid anatomy, and of Laennec in semeiology. There can be no doubt that Glisson discovered rickets, yet he was not the first to print a book upon the subject. He spent more than five years in writing his treatise, and he was helped by other Fellows of the College of Physicians ; so that rickets had been much talked about before the appearance of Glisson’s book, and he was forestalled by those who had the pen of a ready writer. 1 may mention Theophilus de Garencicres. who is said to have pub-