SYPHILIS 545 



The finding of syphilis in rabbits has opened up a new road 

 for research which should lead to the prevention of the disease. 

 It may be possible to apply Edward Jenner's discovery of the 

 means of preventing small-pox to syphilis. He inoculated 

 human beings with cow-pox, and this modified and prevented 

 small-pox. The parasites of small-pox, cow-pox, human and 

 animal syphilis, seem to belong to the same family ; and there- 

 fore it appears reasonable to suppose that rabbit syphilis, if 

 vaccinated into human beings, would modify or prevent the 

 human disease. If this proves to be the case, there will be an 

 enormous saving of health and money. In our naval and 

 military forces alone an immense boon would be gained, and 

 in the civil population idiocy and insanity, with the expenses 

 they incur, would be enormously reduced. There will be diffi- 

 culties to encounter, but with patience and careful experiment 

 these should be overcome in time. Experiments to this end 

 with monkeys are being instituted forthwith. 



Such a method of preventing syphilis appears to hold out 

 the best hope of solving the problem. Up to the present time 

 other methods have proved most unsatisfactory. 



Attempts to prevent disease by treatment are not generally 

 efficacious either. There is the example of the old attempts to 

 prevent malaria by enforcing the administration of quinine. 

 At Ismailia, in the old days before mosquito reduction, the 

 fever continued notwithstanding the quinine. People will not 

 do it. So in the British Navy and in the Army attempts to 

 enforce the hospital treatment of syphilitics have not been 

 entirely successful. I can remember how the infected sailors 

 were sent to hospital and treated until their obvious symptoms 

 disappeared. Then they returned to their ships, and, although 

 under nominal observation, they continued to spread the disease 

 as soon as they were given general leave, for syphilis remains 

 infective for two years or more. The Army during the South 

 African War was the same. 



Without doubt some form of protective vaccine such as I 

 have suggested holds out the best hope of prevention. But 

 there is one important factor which must be grasped. So long 

 as the name of syphilis is hidden in a halo of hush, so long as 

 all research into the problem is fettered by the shackles of 

 silence, the greater will the difficulties be. If only the public 

 generally could be taught the facts of the disease, if old-world 



