Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: Reprint of Two Tracts 1. An essay on gleets. 2. An enquiry into the nature cause and cure of a singular disease of the eyes by Marat Jean Paul Bailey James Blake Editor
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 178 lines and 13574 words, and 4 pages
Editor: James Blake Bailey
TWO
MEDICAL TRACTS
BY J. P. MARAT, M.D.
Reprint of Two Tracts
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
JAMES BLAKE BAILEY
LIBRARIAN OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY
PERCIVAL & CO.
LONDON
INTRODUCTION
The two tracts here reprinted were written in English by Jean Paul Marat during his residence in Church Street, Soho, where he practised as a Physician.
The first tract is dedicated to the Worshipful Company of Surgeons in London, and is dated November 1775. As the type is broken the day of the month cannot be read with certainty in the copy from which this was reprinted: there is no other known copy to which reference can be made. The date is either the 21st or 24th: as regards the month and the year there is no doubt. The second tract has an address to the Royal Society, and is dated January 1st, 1776: as Marat returned to Paris in 1777 both these works were issued towards the end of his residence in London.
A few months before the publication of the Essay on Gleets, Marat had received an M.D. degree from the University of St. Andrews. The degree was equivalent to an honorary one, and, as was the custom of the time, was given on the recommendation of two medical men known to the Senate. The two who recommended Marat were Hugh James and William Buchan, doctors of medicine in Edinburgh. Marat passed no examination for the degree, and probably did not even go to St. Andrews to receive it. At that time it was customary to forward the Diploma on receipt of the graduation fee. Mr. Morse Stephens is of opinion that Marat received degrees from other universities, because in 1777 on his appointment as physician to the body-guard of the Comte d'Artois he is described as "docteur en m?decine de plusieurs facult?s d'Angleterre." It may, however, be pointed out that at this date there were very few universities or faculties granting an M.D. degree, and also that the older universities did not give the Doctor of Medicine as an honorary degree. It is known that Marat resided for some time at Edinburgh and at Dublin, but there is no record of his having received a degree from either of these Universities.
Although diligent search has been made by historians no record of any other qualification has been found, and it may fairly be assumed that the above description is an exaggeration of the St. Andrews degree.
There is evidence in both pamphlets that Marat practised medicine in Paris before coming to London. In the Essay on Gleets he speaks of his "ten years practice"; this probably gives a clue to the actual date of the beginning of his professional life. The duration of his practice in France before his coming to England must have been short. He took up his residence in England in 1766; the Essay is dated November 1775, and Marat was born in 1742: allowing for the ten years he mentions, he would have started practice about 1765, at which date he was twenty-three years of age.
The original tracts are printed in 4to without any running title; the top of each page simply having the pagination in square brackets. The reprints follow the originals exactly as regards orthography, punctuation, etc. Obvious errors have not been corrected: the pamphlets are reproduced exactly as Marat wrote them.
Marat's nationality comes out very strongly in more than one passage, where, whilst using English words, he has kept entirely to the French idiom. In the preface to the first tract he apologises for his imperfect knowledge of the language in which he is writing.
The tract on the Eye is printed with that prodigality of capitals so common in books of that date: curiously enough the one on Gleets is entirely free from this lavish use of capitals, and only has them where absolutely necessary. There is no note in the original of the "Eye" tract: the letters have been followed exactly.
In the second tract the word "Gentlemen" both at the beginning and end of the address to the Royal Society is in MS. The writing is undoubtedly that of a foreigner: Mr. Stephens thinks that in all probability it is in the handwriting of Marat himself, and that this copy is the presentation one. There being no other known copy it is impossible to see if the words were added to the whole of the tracts issued for sale, or whether they exist only in this copy. "Gentlemen" is printed in the earlier tract, and it certainly looks as though it were an omission in this case, not noticed until too late to have the word inserted in print. If this were the "presentation copy," its proper home would be at the Royal Society, but there is no mark of its ever having belonged to that Library.
ESSAY
GLEETS;
WHEREIN
The DEFECTS of the ACTUAL METHOD of treating those Complaints of the URETHRA are pointed out,
AND
An EFFECTUAL WAY of CURING them indicated.
LONDON:
TO THE READER.
The candour of the public will need no solicitation, when acquainted of the following sheets being written by a foreigner, not sufficiently conversant in the language to avoid faults against it: which may likewise be the more easily forgiven, for the fashioning of the stile being less an object of attention, than the importance of matter to the human health.
GENTLEMEN,
A man of mercenary principles would, no doubt, keep it a secret; but a liberal mind is above such interested procedures. To promote the good of society is the duty of all its members; besides, what an exquisite pleasure it is for a benevolent heart to lessen, as much as possible, the number of those unfortunate victims, who, without hope of relief, labour under the many evils to which human nature is subject. Thus, not satisfied with relieving the patients who apply to me, I wish I could relieve many more by your hands. Happy, if in this respect, the fruit of my labour is not lost!
GENTLEMEN,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
J. P. MARAT.
AN ESSAY ON GLEETS, &c.
I enter in the subject without any preamble.
A gleet, by the want of skill in those who undertake to cure venereal diseases, is but too often the sad consequence of a virulent gonorrhoea.
The running is ever more or less coloured, often of a green tint, more often of a pale yellow, and sometimes of a dark brown, a little blood being mixed with it.
The matter discharged comes from the ulcerated glands of the internal tunic of the urethra: but when the running suddenly increases, it always proceeds, or from an inflammation of the muscular tunic, as happens after too freely enjoying the bottle and the company of women, or from a rarefaction of the fluids, caused by the expansion of the internal air; as happens in spring and autumn, two seasons where the atmosphere, being less elastic, does not oppose so great a resistance to the action of the internal air.
Long I had not seen bougies employed for curing gleets, without finding them often ineffectual: however, as it was not my province to treat venereal diseases, this method had not engaged my attention. Mere chance afterwards obliged me to turn my thoughts to the subject, as I shall now relate with the reader's permission.
After I had left him I could not help reflecting on his melancholy condition, and thinking how possibly he could be extricated out of it. The best way that offered to my mind was his cure.
I indeed considered suppuration as the only method to effect it. But not accustomed indiscriminately to adopt a method as soon as it is extolled, much less to follow it blindly, I enquired into the reasons of the frequent inefficacy of the usual practice, and soon was made sensible of them.
After mature consideration, I called upon my friend, and proposed to attempt his cure. He readily agreed. The same day he took an apartment next to mine. I immediately began his treatment, attended him closely, and by suppuration properly conducted, was radically cured in seven weeks.
The actual method of treating gleets is frequently unsuccessful, because defective.
The first defect is the hardiness of the suppurative, common bougies are made with. This is obvious from the structure of the affected parts. The internal tunic of the urethra, although ever irritated in a virulent gonorrhoea, is seldom the seat of the disease. Its seat is commonly the glandular tunic beneath the muscular, as is shewn by the abundance of the suppuration, and more plainly by dissecting. In such case, it is evident, that a common bougie introduced in the urethra, acting immediately on the internal tunic alone, cannot cause but an imperfect suppuration of the ulcerated parts, and consequently cannot perfect the cure.
If so, when the ulcers of the glandular tunic lie at the entrance of the lacunes in the internal tunic; how much more when the corroding virus has extended its seat, and produced a kind of sinusses, as is always the case in inveterate gleets!
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page