The treatment is chiefly conducted with: Kali iodatum, Aurum, Iodium, Hepar, Nitri acidum, Phosphori acidum, Staphysagria, Mezereum, Phosphorus, Sulphur, etc. For hydrargyria, of which I have only had one single case in my practice, I found cinchona entirely useless, whereas Kali iodatum, at the rate of ten grains to four ounces of water, a tablespoonful every three hours, proved highly beneficial. This is likewise my chief remedy for mercurial ptyalism, and for mercurial debility, with or without fever, and for which an additional indication is furnished by the complete prostration of all the physical and mental energies of the patient. In chronic mercurial affections, I recommend more particularly, for affections of the mouth and gums Carbo veget., Hepar, Nitri ac., Dulcamara, Staphysagria; for mercurial angina; Argentum, Lachesis, Carbo veg., Ferrum, Silicea, Phosphori ac., Lachesis, Sarsaparilla, Aurum; for affection of the bony system; Kali iod., Aurum, Phosphori ac., Calcarea, Staphysagria, Asafoetida; for glandular swellings; Aurum, Dulcamara, Carbo veg., Silicea; for pains in the limbs: Guaiacum, Sarsaparilla, Carbo veg., China, Hepar, Nitri ac., for diarrhoea: Plumbum, Nitri ac., Phosphori ac., Hepar; for nervous debility (beside Kali iodatum) : Hepar, Nitri ac., Phosphori acidum, Aurum, Carbo veg., Ferrum; for excessive liability to taking cold and extreme sensitiveness to changes in the weather: Carbo veg., Dulcamara, China, Silicea. Several other remedies might be mentioned; these, however, will be referred to a special treatise on mercurial disease.
SECOND CHAPTER GENERAL THERAPEUTIC OBSERVATIONS
1. PROPHYLACTIC RULES.
Secale 218. – Various Prophylactic Measures.
MOST writers on syphilis, when speaking of this subject, enter upon a long discussion concerning the measures which the state should enact for the purpose of eradicating this plague, or, at any rate, protecting individuals as much as possible against the infection. Properly speaking, this question does not concern us in a work where we do not profess to deal with the economical aspect of this subject, but with the restoration of individual health. However, inasmuch as almost every writer not only starts this question, but likewise answers it in the queerest manner, and inasmuch as we may not have a chance to refute the many absurdities that have been proposed in reference to this matter in any other place, we beg the reader’s leave to state in a few brief lines all that we may deem proper to suggest concerning it. As regards enacting measures for the absolute eradication of this plague, it seems incomprehensible how sensible men can entertain such an idea-all measures of this kind, be they what they may, are absolutely unrealizable. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that, on a given day and at a given hour, every individual inhabitant of a country, rich or poor, young or old, male or female, could be examined by a careful physician, and that those who are found in the least tainted with the disease could be placed under the strictest surveillance of the authorities; and supposing that these examinations, on account of having to make the necessary allowance for the period of incubation, should be continued every day for one or two months; it would likewise become necessary to examine every traveller from a foreign country, and every inhabitant on the frontier, where the people would necessarily pass to and fro, and these examinations would have to be continued every day for at least a couple of months, other wise the whole scheme be frustrated, for the reason that one scaly sheep corrupts the whole flock. Does not this show that all measures that might be proposed for the total eradication of syphilis, are purely chimerical, and cannot be executed?unless every inhabitant of such a State is to be bound, after fashion of the ancient Jews, to show himself at least once a week to the physician, and to obtain from him a certificate of health, that can be shown to the officially appointed inspector when he makes his domiciliary visit. But even this measure could easily be eluded, and would be eluded by a large number, and the whole plan would thus be rendered abortive. All that the authorities can do, is to exercise a strict surveillance over the health of the inmates of brothels; even this measure, which is the one adopted by the French police, is of questionable property. It is true that, upon the whole, a much smaller number of young men are infected by those common prostitutes who are under the surveillance of the police, than by the so-called grisettes, who are beyond the pale of such regulations. On the other hand, however, the surveillance of the police had this disadvantage, that young men, relying upon the good effects’ of such measures and considering themselves safe beyond all peradventure, abandon themselves to the illicit intercourse with prostitutes without any reserve, not considering that a woman may have caught the infection between one official visit and the next, and that even the practised eye of a physician may have failed to detect every little chancre that may have been concealed in one of the folds of the vaginal membrane. Considering, moreover, that a woman may have had connection with a diseased man a few moments before she receives another customer in perfect health, and that she may give him the disease by means of the least quantity of contagious matter that had remained adhering to her parts from her previous lover, it is evident that the sanitary measures which the government has seen fit to adopt in this respect, have, so far, utterly failed to accomplish the object for which they were intended.
Secale 219. Individual Prophylactic Measures.
Without troubling ourselves about the precautionary measures instituted by the State, let us examine the different methods that have been proposed for the use of individuals as proper means to escape the consequences of improper connection with infected woman. Not to mention the use of amulets; of saints’ images, like that of St. Roche, for instances; or the carrying of Biblical verses on the abdomen, after illicit intercourse with bad women, a custom that was introduced soon after Luther’s Reformation; others have proposed to neutralize the efficacy of then poison by washing the parts, immediately after connection, with alkalis, acids, or other chemical substances. As late as the year 1815, a French surgeon, Luna Calderon, pretended to have discovered a sure means of destroying the venereal poison, and without making his discovery public, instituted several public experiments, in the syphilitic hospital. Among other experiments, he inoculated himself with chancrous matter on both sides of the penis. To one of the wound, he immediately after applied some of his preservative, the consequence of which seemed to have been, that no chancre broke out on this side, whereas, on the other side, a chancre did make its appearance. Independently of the many pathological doubts concerning the correctness of Calderon’s observations, which doubts force themselves upon the reader’s mind, during the perusal of his little treatise, the title of which is found among the list of publications mentioned at the commencement of this work, it is certain, even if we do not wish to raise any objection against the manner in which Calderon conducted his experiments, that the poison cannot be destroyed after the act of coition has once taken place. During the performance of this act, so much of the virus becomes absorbed, that, even if the quantity remaining adhering after the act could be destroyed, or removed by washing, or by chemical antidotes, the infection of the general organism would not be prevented by such a proceeding. For this reason, others have imagined that, by painting the mucous membrane of the genital organs with oil, fatty substances, etc., it would be rendered inaccessible to the poison, whose absorption could thus de prevented. But, inasmuch as the oil is rubbed off during the act, the infection continued to caught, until Conton, an Englishman, about the time of Charles II. introduced the use of a membrane, or, “safe”, which had already been recommended by Fallopius, prior to the year 1520, and which has remained to this day the surest preservative against the disease. Since this contrivance, however, is not always handy, others have conceived the idea to blunt the organism against the poison, by repeated inoculations, inferring, as they did, from certain general proposition dropped by Ricord, that, after repeating the process of inoculation finally cease to appear. Even at this day, there exists a society of physicians in Paris, whose object is to make investigations in this direction by direct experimentation. Whether these gentlemen have obtained any very brilliant results, has not yet been divulged; but every sensible physician may rest assured that these infatuated men resemble the fool who, in order to escape the lightning stroke, threw himself out of the window. What, now, shall we say of those whose fancy that they can secure perfect immunity from the consequence of an impure coit, by swallowing, immediately after connection, a few globules of Mercurius 12, or even of a grain of the second trituration? This proceeding might, perhaps, be a preventive, if not against gonorrhoea or fig-warts, at least against chancre, if we did not know that those who are under homoeopathic treatment for chancre, and take a few doses of Mercurius, day after day, often catch a second chancre, in consequence of exposing themselves again before the former ulcer is quite healed. On this account, the best advice we can give to all those who desire to remain free from all contagion, is that contained in the old distich:
