Pathogenic Bacteria 



347 



The first effective treatment for syphilis was Paul Ehrlich's 

 arsenic-containing compound "606." This "magic bullet," as it 

 was called, is capable of killing Treponema pallidum, but the 

 course of treatment is long and painful. Penicillin has given us 

 the most encouraging treatment yet devised to fight this disease, 

 but with the passage of time, the syphilis microbe has been found 



Fig. 59. Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915). {By permission from Intro- 

 duction to the Bacteria by C. E. Clifton. CopyrigJit, 1950. McGraw- 

 Hill Book Company, Inc.) 



to build up a resistance to the antibiotic in some cases, and newer 

 antibiotics or a return to some of the older technics for treating 

 the disease must be used to combat these resistant infections. 

 Syphilis is called the great imitator, since it presents clinical 

 symptoms resembling many other diseases. 



Another disease caused by curved rods is astatic cholera 

 (Vibrio comma), and Borellia vincenti is associated with a fusiform 

 (rod with pointed ends) organism in the human mouth in cases 

 of VINCENTS ANGINA, popularly known as trench mouth. 



