Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
Hecht[23] of Austria claims that no less than an equivalent of 60 army
divisions have been temporarily withdrawn from fighting on the Teutonic
side for venereal diseases. He commends Neisser’s idea that salvarsan
and mercury should be given in the trenches. While hundreds or thousands
of Austrians are sick with syphilis, sound and healthy men are being
shot down in their stead. The diagnosis of syphilis, according to Hecht,
ought to be a signal for sending the men to the front. He makes even the
somewhat bizarre suggestion that special companies of syphilitics should
be formed, for convenience of treatment, on the firing line.
Not only is the syphilis problem in the army of importance to the
military authorities, but also to the civil population, and perhaps to
them a greater problem. With the great increase of venereal disease that
is the result of the conditions of army life in war time, there will be
a considerable percentage of cases developing neurosyphilis a number of
years after discharge from the army, but caused by the infection
acquired during service. In addition many men will bring the disease
back to America in an infectious stage and spread it. We would advocate
that the names of all soldiers who had acquired syphilis and were not
considered cured at time of discharge should be given to health
organizations in their home states that they may be given further care.
These practical and several theoretical questions are raised by the
following fourteen cases which we have condensed from their sources.
=A tabetic lieutenant “shell-shocked” into paresis? Case from Donath
of Vienna.=
=Case A.=[24] An apparently competent German professor in an
intermediate school, a lieutenant of infantry reserves, 33 years old, on
the 17th August, 1914, was stunned for a while by the shock of a
cannon-firing 25 feet away. Urination became difficult. Headaches and
limb pains ensued, with paralysis of fingers, gastric troubles,
forgetfulness especially for names, insomnia, and general scattering of
mental faculties.
=Neurologically=, the pupils were irregular, left larger than right;
Argyll-Robertson reaction. Right knee-jerk livelier than left. Achilles
reactions absent. Slow and dissociated pain reactions in feet, lower
thighs and lower quarter of upper thighs, with hypalgesia or analgesia.
Station good; gait steady. Mentally depressed, slow of thought. Speech
poor and of indistinct construction (mild dementia). Calculation ability
poor. No pleasure in work.
Wassermann reaction of serum weakly positive.
It seems that for a year the patient had been subject to spells of
anger. He was irritated by his wife who had been nervous since an
earthquake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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