SYPHILIS 539 



years, and then suddenly wake up from its long lethargy and 

 cause general paralysis of the insane or locomotor ataxy ; and 

 the way mercury affected it and the way mercury did not affect 

 it was pictured in consummate detail. There were discussions 

 as to its true nature, and authorities became heated over the 

 question of its bacterial or protozoal origin, forgetting that these 

 adjectives are of human manufacture only. Then there were 

 described with varying elaboration curious developmental, 

 involution, or degeneration phases of the spirochete ; but there 

 was not a tittle of proof brought forward in support of the 

 statements made. Too often these writers seemed to forget that 

 it is insufficient to describe " bodies" in the lesions of a disease 

 in any one species of animal for them to be accepted as the 

 causative agent of that disease. More evidence is required than 

 the mere finding of " bodies." It is indeed doubtful whether 

 Schaudinn's discovery would have been accepted had not 

 Metchnikoff and Roux reproduced the disease in chimpanzees by 

 inoculation and again found the same spirochaetes in the lesions 

 produced. Moreover, it is not sufficient to see different shaped 

 bodies in a disease in any one species of animal and to weave 

 them into a life-cycle. Inoculation experiments are always 

 required. In other words, proof is necessary. 



Since 1905, however, medical men have regarded Spirochcsta 

 (or Treponema) pallida as the causative agent of syphilis. When 

 this organism is found in sores the disease is at once labelled 

 syphilis ; and Schaudinn has the credit, at present, of having 

 discovered the nature of the disease. Yet, lately, there have 

 been some authorities in science who have considered that the 

 spirochaete is not in itself sufficient to account for the manifold 

 manifestations of this malady. They remember that syphilis 

 may remain latent in the human body for long periods and may 

 then reappear in some part, which before was apparently un- 

 affected, years after the disease is seemingly cured. Such 

 thinkers — a small minority — have found it difficult to accept that 

 this organism unchanged can alone cause the varied sores of 

 syphilis, the multiform rashes which " imitate all and originate 

 none " ; can remain quiet in the body and can then cause the 

 conditions known as the parasyphilitic affections — general 

 paralysis and locomotor ataxy — years after the disease first 

 appeared ; and they find it hard to believe that the Spirochata 

 pallida can by itself cause primary, secondary, and tertiary 



