Allusion has already been made to the fact that infantile (not congenital) syphilis may be communicated by vaccination. There is undoubted evidence that in the year 1861, in a thinly populated district of Piedmont, in which syphilis is virtually unknown, 46 children of various ages were simultaneously attacked with syphilis proceeding from chancres in the arm, and followed by buboes (enlarged glands) in the armpits: and that all these children had been vaccinated directly or indirectly from a single child, who was subsequently proved to have contracted syphilis from a wet-nurse; and further, that these children transmitted the same disease to a number of women, their wet-nurses, mothers, etc., and even to children who nursed and played with them; that the women so infected communicated the disease to their husbands; and finally, that the disease yielded in all cases to the ordinary treatment adopted in syphilis. This, as Mr. Holmes observes, is by far the most convincing instance of the propagation of syphilis by vacci nation; but several others are recorded by Mr. Lee (Lectures on Syphilitic Inoculation, PA3) and other writers.
Cases in which the nipple of the wet-nurse has been infected by a syphilitic infant are by no means rare, and have in various instances given rise to litigation, Congenital syphilis and infantile syphilis generally must be treated with mercury— either in the form of inunction, by keeping a flannel band, smeared twice a day with mercurial ointment, in constant contact with the thigh or arm for about six weeks; or internally, by the careful use of gray powder (1zydrarg. c. cretd). in doses of a grain and half or two grains, twice a day; combined with a little compound chalk-powder, if any irritation of the bowels occurs. The snuffles will be relieved by syringing the nostrils with lukewarm water, and then introducing a couple of drops of almond or olive oil.
In a foot-note to an .early paragraph of this article, we gave abundant evidence of the appalling prevalence of this disease. In his valuable treatise on Practical Hygiene, Dr. Parkes discusses the question of the prevention of this disease among soldiers; as, however, his remarks for the most part are applicable to other classes, we shall briefly notice them. The means of prevention which he discusses are 1. Continence, which is promoted by (a) the cultivation of a religious feeling and of pure thought and conver sation; (b) the removal from temptation and occasions to sin; (c) constant and agreeable employment, bodily and mentally; and (a) temperance. 2. Early present only 6 per cent of our soldiers are allowed to marry. 3. Precautions after the risk of some French towns the use of lotions and washing is vigorously enforced, with the effect of lessening disease considerably. 4. Cure of the disease in those affected by it.—Health-inspection, in special reference to venereal diseases, are made weekly iu our army by the surgeon or assistant-surgeon; and although similar inspections of all recocrnized prostitutes have long been made by legal authority in many parts of the continent, no attempt at legal interference with the disease in women was made in this country till 1864, when the t` contagious diseases bill " was passed. by which, in the
neighborhood of certain places (Portsmouth, Plymouth, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, and Aldershot), prostitutes who are found diseased may be taken to an hospital, and there detained till cured. A committee appointed a few years ago by government to report upon the best means of checking the disease in the army and navy, in Feb. 1866 issued their recommendations; the most important of which are—(1) the periodic inspec tion of all known prostitutes in the garrison towns placed under the provisions of the act of 1864; (2) the appointment of a surgeon vested with the necessary powers; (3) punishment for infringement of the act; (4) the extension of its operation to all garrison and seaport towns used by troops or ships; (5) the prohibition of the residence of public women in beer-shops; (6) that the Lock hospitals be placed under government control. and lastly, that the police supervision of the women in the streets of such towns be more stringent. The evidence taken by this committee unquestionably proved that the work ing of the act of 1864 was decidedly useful, although its application was so limited. For an account of the various plans which are adopted on the continent for the preven tion of this disease—such as the registration of brothels and of prostitutes, and the enforcement of periodic examinations at short intervals—the reader is referred to the various works of Parent-Duchatelet, Acton, Sanger, and others on prostitution; and to two articles on the same subject by Dr. Holland (of Cork) in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgkal Review for 1852.
Without entering into any prolonged details regarding therhistory of this disease, we may briefly mention that, toward the close of the 15th c., a great epidemic of syphilis pervaded Europe, and that it was supposed to have been imported from the new world; and that, in the 16th c., syphilis was recognized as the result of a specific virus. During last century the history of this disease is divisible into three distinct periods, in each of which very different views have been prevalent. These may be described as — 1. The period and doctrine of Hunter, who believed that the various forms of syphilis.and gonorrhea depend upon one and the same poison—a view taught by Carmichael in Dublin, Cazenave in Paris, and others. 2. The period and doctrine of Record, who proved that gonorrhea was quite different from syphilis, and that inoculation with gonorrheal matter will not cause a chancer; and that there are two classes of chancers, the soft and hard, originating from the same source. 3. The present period, commencing in 1856, in which it is held that, exclusive of gonorrhea, there are two forms of the syphilitic poison. It has been judiciously advised by Mr. Longmore, the professor of military surgery in the army medical school, that in accordance with our present knowledge of this disease, the term syphilis or syphilitic should be restricted to such cases as are believed to be of a specific infecting kind, while the term local venereal sore or venereal ulceration should. be applied to those cases which require merely local treatment, and are not followed by constitutional symptoms.