544 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Bayon, Noguchi, Martin, the writer, and others (see the British 

 Medical Journal, November I, 191 3, p. 1 1 59)- 



Therefore, the train of evidence that these intracellular 

 parasites which develop into spirochetes are the causative 

 agents of syphilis is complete, because similar parasites which 

 develop into spirochsetes have been found in several species of 

 animals, accompanied by diseases in those animals which re- 

 semble syphilis ; and inoculation experiments based on this 

 belief have been successful, for the disease and the same 

 parasites have been reproduced artificially ; spirochsetes are 

 found always accompanying the intracellular parasites in all 

 the lesions in all the animals. But this belief has received still 

 further proof. Noguchi has succeeded in cultivating several of 

 the spirochetes, including Spirochceta pallida, in test-tubes. But 

 he has found that the latter will only grow in the presence of 

 living tissue cells. Some of these cultures were obtained (they 

 were subcultures taken from those sent from the Rockefeller 

 Institute, New York), and in the living cells the intracellular 

 parasites were found. Noguchi himself noticed some peculiar 

 bodies which are very similar to those seen by the jelly method 

 in human, guinea-pig, and rabbit syphilis. These he described 

 at a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine. 



The discovery of syphilis — or a disease closely allied to it — 

 in the lower animals heralds a most important advance in our 

 knowledge of„the disease. It throws a new light on its origin. 

 For, although the parasites of human, rabbit, and guinea-pig 

 syphilis differ slightly from each other, the difference is no 

 greater than the difference between the animals which contain 

 them. From their appearance one is struck by the probability 

 that they were derived from the same original source. The 

 old idea which placed the origin of syphilis in Divine wrath is 

 no longer tenable, for surely rabbits have incurred no such 

 displeasure ; nor did rabbits or guinea-pigs play any part in 

 the Crusades, nor in the conquest of America. It seems more 

 likely that syphilis has existed in the human race as long as 

 that race has existed, and even longer ; and that perhaps it has 

 taken its place in the evolution of the animal kingdom, and with 

 the evolution of the species has come the evolution of their 

 parasites and their diseases. The reason why the ancients did 

 not mention syphilis is probably the reason why we do not 

 mention it now — we are ashamed of it, 



