Limits of the lab: Diagnosing "latent gonorrhea," 1872-1910

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volumn 87, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 63-85

  Bowen, Elliott ^a  

^a BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Albert Neisser; Emil Noeggerath; Gynecology; Laboratory revolution; Latent gonorrhea; Patients; Scientific controversy; Venereal disease

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BACTERIOLOGY; DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURE; EUROPE; GONORRHEA; GYNECOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; METHODOLOGY; MICROBIOLOGY; NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE; NORTH AMERICA; PHYSIOLOGY;

BACTERIOLOGY; CLINICAL LABORATORY TECHNIQUES; EUROPE; GONORRHEA; GYNECOLOGY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE; NORTH AMERICA;

EID: 84876560445     PISSN: 00075140     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/bhm.2013.0000     Document Type: Article

References (124)

1. Biographical information on Emil Noeggerath can be found in Herbert Thoms, Classical Contributions to Obstetrics and Gynecology (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1935).
2. Francis R. Packard, History of Medicine in the United States, vol. 2 (New York: Hafner, 1963).
3. and J. D. Oriel, "Noeggerath and 'Latent Gonorrhea,'" Sexual. Transm. Dis. 18, no. 2 (1991): 89-91.
4. For Noeggerath's address, see Emil Noeggerath, "Latent Gonorrhea, Especially with Regard to Its Influence on Fertility in Women, " Trans. Amer. Gyn. Soc. 1 (1876): 268-300.
5. Biographical information on Emil Noeggerath can be found in Herbert Thoms, Classical Contributions to Obstetrics and Gynecology (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1935).
6. Theodore Cianfrani, A Short History of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1960), 316-18.
7. Sarah Stage, Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women's Medicine (New York: Norton, 1979), 83-84.
8. Harold Speert, Obstetric and Gynecologic Milestones Illustrated (New York: Parthenon, 1996), 365-67.
9. Freeman J. Bumstead, The Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases (Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1879), 210.
10. Angus Macdonald, "Latent Gonorrhoea in the Female Sex, with Special Relation to the Puerperal State, " Trans. Edinburgh Obstet. Soc. 3 (1873): 164-89, quotations on 185.
11. J. L. Milton, On the Pathology and Treatment of Gonorrhoea (London: Hardwicke and Bogue, 1876), 44.
12. Francis R. Packard, History of Medicine in the United States, vol. 2 (New York: Hafner, 1963).
13. D. Berry Hart, Manual of Gynecology, 4th ed. (New York: J. H. Vail, 1893), 669.
14. Ernst Finger, Gonorrhea (New York: William Wood, 1894), 272-73.
15. Palmer Findley, Gonorrhea in Women (St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1908), 40.
16. For works in this vein, see John Duffy, A History of Public Health in New York City, vol. 2 (New York: Russell Sage, 1974).
17. Morris J. Vogel and Charles Rosenberg, eds., The Therapeutic Revolution: Essays in the Social History of American Medicine (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1979).
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19. Andrew Cunningham and Perry Williams, eds., The Laboratory Revolution in Medicine (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
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22. Gayle Davis, "The Cruel Madness of Love": Sex, Syphilis, and Psychiatry in Scotland, 1880-1930 (New York: Rodopi, 2008), esp. chap. 4.
23. see in particular, Steve Sturdy, "Looking for Trouble: Medical Science and Clinical Practice in the Historiography of Modern Medicine, " 739-57.
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25. Rosemary Wall, "Using Bacteriology in Elite Hospital Practice: London and Cambridge, 1880-1920, " 776-96.
26. Mirjam Stuij, "Explaining Trends in Body Weight: Offer's Rational and Myopic Choice vs. Elias' Theory of Civilizing Processes, " 796-812.
27. In arguing that "patient testimony" played such a critical role in determining the outcome of the debate over latent gonorrhea, I do not mean to suggest that patients themselves were important in resolving this medical controversy. The distinction is an important one to make.
28. though many scholars have convincingly shown the power turn-of-the-century patients wielded in their relationships with physicians, they played almost no role in resolving debates among medical authorities of the time. For an excellent analysis of the impact of patients on these matters in more recent times, see Steven Epstein, Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
29. Nancy Theriot, "Diagnosing Unnatural Motherhood: Nineteenth-Century Physicians and 'Puerperal Insanity,'" in Technical Knowledge in American Culture: Science, Technology, and Medicine since the Early 1800s, ed. Hamilton Cravens, Alan I. Marcus, and David M. Katzman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996), 73-90.
30. Regina Morantz-Sanchez, "Negotiating Power at the Bedside: Historical Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Patients and Their Gynecologists, " Fem. Stud. 26, no. 2 (2000): 287-309.
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32. Sally Wilde, "Truth, Trust, and Confidence in Surgery, 1890-1910: Patient Autonomy, Communication, and Consent, " Bull. Hist. Med. 83, no. 2 (2009): 302-30. Interestingly, one of the only studies to connect lay and patient interests to debates between bacteriologists and clinicians is on gonorrhea.
33. see Michael Worboys, "Unsexing Gonorrhoea: Bacteriologists, Gynaecologists, and Suffragists in Britain, 1860-1920, " Soc. Hist. Med. 17, no. 1 (2004): 41-59.
34. "Excerpta, " Atlanta Med. Surg. J. 14 (1877): 631-32.
35. see Michael Worboys, "Unsexing Gonorrhoea: Bacteriologists, Gynaecologists, and Suffragists in Britain, 1860-1920, " Soc. Hist. Med. 17, no. 1 (2004): 41-59.
36. George Engelmann, "Induction of Miscarriage in Case of Placenta Praevia, " St. Louis Courier Med. Collateral Sci. 4 (1880): 377-85.
37. Quoted in "Reviews, " Amer. J. Med. Sci. 77 (1879): 168-76, quotation on 175.
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39. J. M. Richmond, "Remarks on a Few of the Surgical Diseases of the Pelvic Organs, " Trans. Med. Assoc. State Missouri 22 (1879): 39.
40. In his 1877 report, Goodell spoke of a case of sterility that he attributed to a woman's husband, particularly to the lack of sperm in his semen. Based on this, he concluded that "I am also led to think that, in the majority of these cases of unfruitful marriage which have been attributed to a latent gonorrhea in the woman, it is reasonable to attribute the sterility less to an alleged secondary infection of the wife's organs, than to the primary disorder of the husband's. " William Goodell, "Case of Sterility, " Obstet. J. Great Britain Ireland 4 (1876-77): 171-72, emphasis added.
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43. Elizabeth Griselle, "Peri-Uterine Cellulitis and Its Sequelae, " Trans. Session Med. Soc. State California 9 (1879): 236-41.
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48. Angus Macdonald, "Latent Gonorrhoea in the Female Sex, with Special Relation to the Puerperal State, " Trans. Edinburgh Obstet. Soc. 3 (1873): 164-89, quotations on 185.
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58. "Gonorrheal Infection in Women, " Practice: J. Busy Doctor 2 (1888): 130-32.
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60. Leslie A. Phillips, "Gonorrheal Infection in Women, " New Engl. Med. Gazette 25 (1890): 13-19.
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71. Kate Lindsay, "Avoidable Causes of Female Pelvic Disorder, " Trans. Michigan Med. Soc. 13 (1889): 222-36, esp. 228.
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73. J. C. Hoag, "Modern Views of Theoretical and Practical Obstetrics, " Chicago Med. J. Examiner 58 (1889): 46-60.
74. Angus Macdonald, "Latent Gonorrhoea in the Female Sex, with Special Relation to the Puerperal State, " Trans. Edinburgh Obstet. Soc. 3 (1873): 164-89, quotations on 185.
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76. Joseph Taber Johnson, "The Curse of Gonorrhea, " Amer. Gyn. 1 (1902): 599-609, quotation on 603.
77. "New Observations in Gonorrhea, " Buffalo Med. & Surg. J. 34 (1895): 551.
78. Examination of twenty-six Noeggerath-friendly articles or books published between 1895 and 1900 reveals only five that mention either Wertheim's name or his experiments.
79. See George Granville Bantock, "On the Importance of Gonorrhoea as a Cause of Inflammation of the Pelvic Organs, " J. Gyn. 1 (1891): 97.
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81. W. R. Pryor, "Latent Gonorrhea in Women, " J. Cutan. Genito-Urinary Dis. 13 (1895): 89-91.
82. Frederick John McCann, "The Aetiology of Gonorrhoea, " Trans. Obstet. Soc. London 38 (1897): 250-53.
83. See George Granville Bantock, "On the Importance of Gonorrhoea as a Cause of Inflammation of the Pelvic Organs, " J. Gyn. 1 (1891): 97.
84. Robert W. Taylor, The Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases (Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1895), 287-89.
85. For more on diagnostic difficulties, see E. C. Dudley, Diseases of Women (New York: Lea Brothers, 1899), 157.
86. For more on diagnostic difficulties, see E. C. Dudley, Diseases of Women (New York: Lea Brothers, 1899), 157.
87. Lewis Wheat, "Latent Gonorrhea in the Male as a Factor in Diseases of the Female Organs of Generation, " Gaillard's Med. J. 72-73 (1900): 977-81.
88. E. Solly, "Septic Rheumatisms, " J. Balneology & Climat. 4 (1900), 269-78, quotation on 275.
89. E. Solly, "Septic Rheumatisms, " J. Balneology & Climat. 4 (1900), 269-78, quotation on 275.
90. H. R. Holmes, "Gonorrhoea as an Etiological Factor in Diseases of Women, " Med. Sentinel 3 (1895): 341-45.
91. J. Noer, "What Are the General Practitioners' Duties Regarding the Prevention of the Spread of Venereal Diseases?, " Clin. Rev. 12 (1900): 293-94.
92. C. C. Carmalt, "The Immediate Causation of the Diseases Peculiar to Women, " Boston Med. Surg. J. 130 (1894): 68-70.
93. Ernst Finger, Gonorrhea (New York: William Wood, 1894), 272-73.
94. See George Granville Bantock, "On the Importance of Gonorrhoea as a Cause of Inflammation of the Pelvic Organs, " J. Gyn. 1 (1891): 97.
95. Frank Glenn, "The Treatment of Gonorrhoea, " Indiana Med. J. 16 (1898): 234.
96. Thomas M. McIntosh, "Observations Abroad, " Southern Med. Record 22 (1892): 337.
97. "Editorial: Gonorrheal Infection, " Med. Adv. 25 (1890): 135.
98. See Prince Albert Morrow, Social Diseases and Marriage: Social Prophylaxis (New York: Lea Brothers, 1904),129.
99. Joseph Taber Johnson, "The Curse of Gonorrhea, " Amer. Gyn. 1 (1902): 599-609, quotation on 603.
100. Palmer Findley, Gonorrhea in Women (St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1908), 40.
101. M. Thorner, "Endometritis, " Indiana Med. J. 25 (1907): 299-312.
102. E. E. Reininger, "Chronic Gonorrhoea, " Proc. Internat. Hahnemannian Assoc. 25 (1901): 281-300.
103. Thomas Clifford Allbutt and W. S. Playfair, eds., A System of Gynaecology (London: Macmillan, 1906), 51.
104. Joseph Taber Johnson, "The Curse of Gonorrhea, " Amer. Gyn. 1 (1902): 599-609, quotation on 603.
105. W. Peter Ward, Birth Weight and Economic Growth: Women's Living Standards in the Industrializing West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 22.
106. L. L. Danforth, "The Physical Signs and Treatment of Gonorrhoea in Women, " Trans. Homeop. Med. Soc. State New York 37 (1902): 152-55.
107. G. Frank Lydston, "Some of the Fallacies in the Clinical Diagnosis of Gonorrhoea, " Surg. Gyn. Obstet. 1 (1905): 439-40.
108. G. Frank Lydston, "Some of the Fallacies in the Clinical Diagnosis of Gonorrhoea, " Surg. Gyn. Obstet. 1 (1905): 439-40.
109. W. A. Cary, "Pathological Specimens; with Remarks, " New Orleans Med. News Hosp. Gazette 7, no. 5 (July 1860): 356-66.
110. Ferdinand Charles Valentine, The Irrigation Treatment of Gonorrhoea (New York: William Wood, 1900), 169.
111. Charles C. Norris, Gonorrhea in Women (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1913), 124.
112. George R. Livermore, "A Plea for the Education of the Public to the Seriousness of Gonorrhea, " Memphis Med. Monthly 30, no. 9 (1910): 463.
113. J. B. Greene, "Gonorrheal Peritonitis, " Progress 2 (1888): 58-61.
114. W. E. Fitch, "The Remote Effects of Latent Gonorrhea in the Female, " Trans. Med. Assoc. Georgia 54 (1903): 370-80.
115. "Wiley v. Wiley, " Northwestern Rep. 151 (1915): 205-10.
116. T. M. Reade, "Gonorrhea and Marriage, " Lancet-Clinic 99 (1904): 29-32.
117. Ferdinand Charles Valentine, The Irrigation Treatment of Gonorrhoea (New York: William Wood, 1900), 169.
118. Almo De Monco, "Non-Specific Urethritis, " California Eclectic Med. J. 4 (1911): 258-61.
119. Charles M. Carpenter and Robert S. Westphal, "The Problem of the Gonococcus Carrier, " Amer. J. Pub. Health 30 (1940): 537-41.
120. For more examples of patient's influence, see H. J. Boldt, "Gonorrheal Pyosalpinx, " Ann. Med. Pract. 15 (1902): 166-68.
121. August A. Hussey, "Gonorrhea in Women, " Brooklyn Med. J. 17 (1903): 171-74.
122. Palmer Findley, Gonorrhea in Women (St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1908), 40.
123. T. Griswold Comstock, "Chronic Endometritis, Leucorrhea, and Uterine Catarrh, " Clin. Rep. 3 (1890): 162.
124. Ira Rutkow, The History of Surgery in the United States, 1775-1900, vol. 2 (San Francisco: Norman, 1992), 115.