Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1948

SIR JONATHAN HUTCHINSON (1828-1913) Syphilis. Cassell 1887 xii, 532 pp., 8 col. plates (front.). 16.6 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1946

Ophthalmology was one of the first areas of medicine to attract Hutchinson. It was while working in this specialty that he discovered that chronic interstitial keratitis is a symptom of congenital syphilis. Already interested in syphilis, he performed further clinical research which ultimately resulted in his description of the peg shaped notched teeth and labyrinthine disease characteristic of congenital syphilis. Together with chronic interstitial keratitis, the three are known as Hutchinson's triad. Hutchinson's views on syphilis were ahead of his time, for in the Preface (p. viii) to this work he states: "The creed which will be found to interfuse not only this work, but almost all that I have ever written on syphilis, is that the disease depends upon a living and specific microbe, and that it is contagious or transmittable only so long as that microbe retains its vitality." Although his ideas were correct, they were not confirmed until 1905 when Fritz R. Schaudinn (1871-1906) and Erich Hoffmann (1868-1959) discovered the causative organism--Treponema pallidum.

Cited references: Waller 5026