On the transmission, from parent to offspring, of some forms of disease, and of morbid taints and tendencies / by James Whitehead.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the transmission, from parent to offspring, of some forms of disease, and of morbid taints and tendencies / by James Whitehead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    9/372
    — susceptibilities, may be owing to the circumstance, that the phenomena are differently manifested in the two sexes respectively; but it is not improbable that, when the subject shall have been submitted to a more rio-id investigation, the state of the case will be found to be precisely reversed; — the disease, in some instances, continuing in active operation for years where its existence was not suspected, the signs announcing its presence, although sufficiently intelligible, having been altogether misinterpreted/’ This observation, it is needless to say, refers to uterine syphilis. Indeed, it is recorded in another paragraph, that “ evidences of syphilitic disease may be found in the lower part of the uterus long after the disorder was believed to have been driven altogether out of the system.” At page 372 the general evidences of constitutional syphilis in the female are stated to be, “ pallor of the countenance, languor, precarious appetite, loss of rest, hectic feverishness, lumbar and hypogastric pains, disordered secretions, and the appearance of the dis- ease in the offspring.” Certain signs, thought to be pathognomonic, were also given, such as endo-metritis, a mottled or patchy aspect of the cervix uteri, aphthae of the cervix, and warty excrescences. Several addi- tional years of observation have served to confirm these statements, and have enabled me to furnish other particulars which I doubt not will be found to be accordant with what may have fallen under the notice of those of my professional brethren who have paid attention to the subject.