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History General

Infection of the Innocents

Wet Nurses, Infants, and Syphilis in France, 1780-1900

by (author) Joan Sherwood

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2010
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773537415
    Publish Date
    Sep 2010
    List Price
    $100.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773580916
    Publish Date
    Sep 2010
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

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.

About the author

Joan Sherwood is a retired professor who taught in the Department of History at Queen's University.

Joan Sherwood's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Sherwood's book gives us an important and engrossing analysis of the legal, ethical, and institutional dimensions surrounding wet nurses and the treatment of syphilitic children. She convincingly demonstrates that disadvantaged women used the law to shif

"Sherwood compellingly investigates the social and ethical implications of this medical innovation, and describes in thrilling detail the legal consequences for families and doctors when infected wet-nurses sued for damages." Merilyn Simonds, The Kingston Whig Standard