Syphilis is a disease caused by a germ called spirocheta; the full name is spirocheta pallida—a pale, spiral-shaped germ. Though the disease has been ravaging Europe and America for centuries, the germ of it has been discovered only a few years ago, namely, in 1905, and, like the gonococcus, also by a German scientist, Fritz Schaudinn. Syphilis is a constitutional disease. In ten days to three weeks after a person has contracted syphilis, he (or she) develops a sore (at the spot where the germs got in).
This sore is called chancre or primary lesion. But when this sore makes its appearance the spirochetæ and the poison which they elaborate are already circulating in the blood, all over the system. The disease is already systemic, or constitutional, and the chancre is the local expression of a constitutional disease. Cutting out the chancre will not cure the disease, because, as stated, the germs are already in the system. The time between the contraction of the disease (the infectious intercourse) and the appearance of the chancre is called the Incubation Period. The time between the appearance of the chancre and the appearance of the rash on the
body (the rash looks like a measles rash and is called roseola, which means a rose-colored rash) is called the Primary Stage. It lasts about six weeks. With the appearance of the rash commences the Secondary Stage. This stage is characterized by all sorts of eruptions, mild and severe, by white little patches (called mucous patches) in the throat, mouth, tonsils, vagina, by falling out of the hair, etc.
The length of this secondary stage depends a good deal upon the sort of treatment the patient gets. Improperly treated, or not treated at all, it may last two or three years or more. Properly treated, it may be cut short at once, in a few days, so that the patient may never again in his or her life get an eruption. The third or Tertiary Stage is characterized by ulcerations in various parts of the body and by swellings or tumors. The name of a syphilitic swelling or tumor is gumma (plural, gummata). The tertiary stage is the most terrible stage and it used to be the terror of syphilitic patients. But at the present time, under our modern methods of treatment, patients, if properly treated, never have a tertiary stage.
We have seen many patients who considered syphilis a trifling disease, because all they knew of their disease was the chancre and the first eruption, i.e., the roseola, and perhaps a slight falling out of the hair. They then put themselves under energetic treatment, the activity of the disease was checked, and they never had another symptom afterwards, though a Wassermann test showed that the disease was not entirely eradicated. It was merely held in check—which is the second best thing.
As stated before, syphilis is the most hereditary of all diseases. Fortunately, if the disease is still very active in the parents, particularly in the mother, the child is generally aborted. Some syphilitic mothers will have half a dozen or more miscarriages in succession. When the disease has become "attenuated," either by treatment or by itself—many diseases lose their virulence in time—the child may be carried to term. It then may be born dead, or it may be born strongly syphilitic, and die in a few days or weeks, or it may be born without any signs of syphilis and be apparently healthy and then develop the disease at the age of ten, twelve, fourteen, or later, or it may be born healthy and remain healthy.
But no woman who had syphilis, or whose husband had syphilis, should dare to conceive or to give birth to a child unless she has been given permission by a competent physician. I mean just what I say. It is not a personal matter. A woman has a right to marry a syphilitic husband if she wants to and run the risk of contracting syphilis. Her body is her own, and if she does it with her eyes open it is her affair. But a woman has no right to bring into the world syphilitic or syphilitically tainted children. Here society has a right to interfere.
Syphilis runs a milder course in women than it does in men. But this milder course is not an unmixed blessing; it may be considered a misfortune, because, the same as gonorrhea in women, syphilis is often present for months and years until it has made such inroads that it is but little amenable to treatment. In many women the disease runs such a mild course, as far as definite symptoms are concerned, that they are sure they never had anything the matter with them, and they are perfectly sincere in their denial of ever having had any infection. Often it is only when they complain of obscure symptoms, for which we can find no explanation, and then take a Wassermann test, that we discover what the real trouble is. And then the internal organs are sometimes found so deeply affected that it is hard to do anything.
So it is seen that the mildness of the course of the disease, while a good thing in itself, is bad in that respect that it prevents timely treatment. It is therefore important that whenever a woman is in any way suspicious that she may have the disease that she have herself examined; and if she has reasons to suspect that her husband or partner has the disease, she should persuade him to have himself examined.
Locomotor ataxia, one of the most terrible sequelæ of syphilis, is much more rare in women than it is in men. So is general paresis, also called general paralysis of the insane, or softening of the brain.
This sore is called chancre or primary lesion. But when this sore makes its appearance the spirochetæ and the poison which they elaborate are already circulating in the blood, all over the system. The disease is already systemic, or constitutional, and the chancre is the local expression of a constitutional disease. Cutting out the chancre will not cure the disease, because, as stated, the germs are already in the system. The time between the contraction of the disease (the infectious intercourse) and the appearance of the chancre is called the Incubation Period. The time between the appearance of the chancre and the appearance of the rash on the
body (the rash looks like a measles rash and is called roseola, which means a rose-colored rash) is called the Primary Stage. It lasts about six weeks. With the appearance of the rash commences the Secondary Stage. This stage is characterized by all sorts of eruptions, mild and severe, by white little patches (called mucous patches) in the throat, mouth, tonsils, vagina, by falling out of the hair, etc.
The length of this secondary stage depends a good deal upon the sort of treatment the patient gets. Improperly treated, or not treated at all, it may last two or three years or more. Properly treated, it may be cut short at once, in a few days, so that the patient may never again in his or her life get an eruption. The third or Tertiary Stage is characterized by ulcerations in various parts of the body and by swellings or tumors. The name of a syphilitic swelling or tumor is gumma (plural, gummata). The tertiary stage is the most terrible stage and it used to be the terror of syphilitic patients. But at the present time, under our modern methods of treatment, patients, if properly treated, never have a tertiary stage.
We have seen many patients who considered syphilis a trifling disease, because all they knew of their disease was the chancre and the first eruption, i.e., the roseola, and perhaps a slight falling out of the hair. They then put themselves under energetic treatment, the activity of the disease was checked, and they never had another symptom afterwards, though a Wassermann test showed that the disease was not entirely eradicated. It was merely held in check—which is the second best thing.
Spirocheta Pallida, or Treponema Pallidum, the Germ of Syphilis as Seen under the Microscope.
But no woman who had syphilis, or whose husband had syphilis, should dare to conceive or to give birth to a child unless she has been given permission by a competent physician. I mean just what I say. It is not a personal matter. A woman has a right to marry a syphilitic husband if she wants to and run the risk of contracting syphilis. Her body is her own, and if she does it with her eyes open it is her affair. But a woman has no right to bring into the world syphilitic or syphilitically tainted children. Here society has a right to interfere.
Syphilis runs a milder course in women than it does in men. But this milder course is not an unmixed blessing; it may be considered a misfortune, because, the same as gonorrhea in women, syphilis is often present for months and years until it has made such inroads that it is but little amenable to treatment. In many women the disease runs such a mild course, as far as definite symptoms are concerned, that they are sure they never had anything the matter with them, and they are perfectly sincere in their denial of ever having had any infection. Often it is only when they complain of obscure symptoms, for which we can find no explanation, and then take a Wassermann test, that we discover what the real trouble is. And then the internal organs are sometimes found so deeply affected that it is hard to do anything.
So it is seen that the mildness of the course of the disease, while a good thing in itself, is bad in that respect that it prevents timely treatment. It is therefore important that whenever a woman is in any way suspicious that she may have the disease that she have herself examined; and if she has reasons to suspect that her husband or partner has the disease, she should persuade him to have himself examined.
Locomotor ataxia, one of the most terrible sequelæ of syphilis, is much more rare in women than it is in men. So is general paresis, also called general paralysis of the insane, or softening of the brain.
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