Title Infection of the innocents : wet nurses, infants, and syphilis in France, 1780-1900 / Joan Sherwood

Published Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 214 pages) : illustrations Series McGill-Queen's/Associated Medical Services studies in the history of medicine, health and society ; 37 McGill-Queen's/Associated Medical Services studies in the history of medicine, health, and society ; 37. Contents Mercury and syphilis : a dysfunctional relationship -- The making of a modern hospital in eighteenth-century Paris -- The infants of Vaugirard -- The wet nurse as technology -- The wet nurse and the law -- The Doctor exonerated -- Appendices. Case sources ; Decision of the Court of Dijon, 14 May 1868 ; General legislative and statutory terms Summary In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries congenital syphilis was a major cause of infant mortality in France but mercury, the preferred treatment for the disease, could not be safely given to infants. In the 1780s the Vaugirard hospital in Paris began to treat affected infants by giving mercury to wet nurses, who transmitted it to infants through their milk. Despite the highly contagious nature of syphilis and the dangerous side-effects of mercury, the practice of using healthy wet nurses to treat syphilitic infants spread throughout France and continued into the nineteenth century Analysis JSTOR-DDA Hospice de Vaugirard History Syphilis, Congenital, hereditary, and infantile Treatment Social aspects France History Syphilis Patients Legal status, laws, etc France History Wet nurses Legal status, laws, etc France History Medical personnel Malpractice France History Multi-User Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-207) and index Notes Print version record Subject Hospice de Vaugirard (Paris, France) -- History SUBJECT Hospice de Vaugirard (Paris, France) Subject Syphilis, Congenital, hereditary, and infantile -- Treatment -- Social aspects -- France -- History Syphilis -- Patients -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- France -- History Wet nurses -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- France -- History Medical personnel -- Malpractice -- France -- History Medicine -- History -- 18th century. Syphilis, Congenital -- history Syphilis, Congenital -- therapy Breast Feeding -- adverse effects History, 18th Century History, 19th Century Malpractice -- legislation & jurisprudence Mercury -- therapeutic use MEDICAL -- Forensic Medicine. MEDICAL -- Preventive Medicine. MEDICAL -- Public Health. HISTORY -- General. Medicine Medical personnel -- Malpractice SUBJECT France https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D005602 Subject France Genre/Form Electronic books History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780773580916 0773580913

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