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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    this century; Fothergill’s Account appeared in 17-18; and in 1779 Withering established the scarlatinal nature of the disease. In 1798, Edward Jenner published his Inquiry into Cow-pox. And, in order to complete this topic, I will just enter the next century, and refer to Maton’s paper, read before the College of Physicians on April 4th, 1814, wherein the scarlatiniform variety of contagious roseola is first described. Poets still found themes in our branch of knowledge. Dr. Hugh Downman, of Exeter, published, in 1774, the first instalment of a didactic poem entitled Infancy ; or the Management of Children. The poem, complete in six books, was published in 1788. The copy I possess is called the sixth edition, and dated 1802. Unluckily, Downman writes in metre without rhyme, and blank verse opens the floodgates of prolixity. We have now reached the nineteenth century, and literature be- comes so immense that any chronicle and brief abstract of the time will be very defective. The great increase of knowledge in our age has been chiefly due to two causes, namely, to the study of morbid anatomy, and to the invention of the methods of physical examina- tion, which are, indeed, the study of morbid anatomy in the living subject. In both these respects pre-eminent, the name of Laennee at once comes to mind; and no man, since Hippocrates, has exerted so powerful an influence upon medicine as he. His fame as the inventor of auscultation has dimmed what would otherwise have been his fame as a morbid anatomist. And I must not forget Bayle, whose book on phthisis, published in 1810, and whose earlier papers, are the starting-point of the modem doctrine of tubercle; and how large a part tubercle plays in the pathology of children I need not say. Bretonneau’s work upon diphtheria and typhoid fever was so original and so conclusive, that he may almost be said to have dis- covered those diseases. It was in France that inherited syphilis was first discussed in a manner such as the importance of the topic deserved. Duchenne discovered the pseudohypertrophic form of paralysis, and what he calls “ obstetrical paralysis.” And lastly, how success- fully the pathology of the nervous system has been cultivated by living Frenchmen, you, all know well. Coming back to our own country, I will refer to the work of Wil- lan upon skin-diseases; to John Clarke, whose description of laryngismus stridulus is the first which deserves notice ; to William Charles Wells, the discoverer of scarlatinal albuminuria ; to John Bume, whose papers upon typhlitis are the beginning of definite knowledge of that disease; and to George Gregory, of whom the same may be said with regard to tubercular peritonitis. Dr. Bowditch of America is still alive, yet I cannot help alluding to his invention of the method of paracentesis which is now com- monly called aspiration. It is true that the adaptation of a syringe to a cannula is as old as Anel, and perhaps older; but it is no less true that the chest was not aspirated before the day of Dr. Bow- ditch. Lastly, I must mention the three most useful means of physical examination which we owe to Germany, namely, the thermometer, reintroduced by Wunderlich; the ophthalmoscope, invented by Helmholtz : and the laryngoscope of Tiirck and Czermak. Before I sit down, I wish to bring before you one truth, which this sketch makes very clear. Looking over the names of the men whom we have celebrated, the men who have made our knowledge what it is, I do not find one who could be called a specialist in children s diseases; but the multitude are mad after specialties. No wonder ; for we are the descendants of those who, in their sick- ness, worshipped fetishes and charms, or sought after star-gazers and the touch of kings. Our children will deem us to be,