170 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



made on fresh blood. In August of last year he commenced 

 his researches on blood placed at his disposal by Dr. Zeisisl ; 

 and in syphilitic cases he constantly found, after three or 

 four days, small glittering corpuscles, sometimes presenting 

 projections. These bodies multiplied themselves by gemma- 

 tion, new corpuscles being thus formed, which in their turn 

 underwent further proliferation. The addition of various 

 fluids, especially sugared water or Pasteur's solution, pro- 

 duced shrinking of the corpuscles. The corpuscles finally 

 became surrounded by vacuoles. This appearance was found 

 so constantly that he could, from the formation of these cor- 

 puscles only, diagnose with certainty the presence of syphilis. 

 On eiffht or ten occasions he had examined blood furnished 

 to him by Professors Strieker and Hebra ; and he had always 

 been able to separate the specimens of non-syphilitic from 

 those of syphilitic blood. He hence named these bodies 

 syphilis-corpuscles. With regard to their number, sometimes 

 more than fifty were seen in the field of the microscope, 

 sometimes fewer. The time of their appearance varied ; 

 sometimes they were seen on the third or fifth day, in many 

 cases at the end of twenty-four hours. A low temperature 

 prevented their development ; but it went on without im- 

 pediment in a temperature ranging from 50° to 64° Fahr. 

 He had not been able to determine whether the corpuscles 

 were newly formed in syphilitic blood, or whetlier their 

 germs pre-existed in the blood, and were only called into 

 activity by the disease. Dr. Lostorfer related a number of 

 cases of secondary and tertiary syphilis in various stages, on 

 which he had made observations. It was remarkable that, 

 in those patients who were improving under autisyphilitic 

 treatment, the corpuscles diminished, and at last disappeared. 

 Professor Skoda congratulated Dr. Lostorfer on his discovery, 

 and regretted that it could not be rewarded with a prize, as 

 would be the case in Paris. Professors Strieker and Hebra 

 also spoke a few Avords in confirmation of Dr. Lostorfer's 

 statement. Dr. Hebra suggested the examination of the 

 blood in smallpox, in order to ascertain whether it presented 

 any specific diagnostic signs. 



The matter again came under discussion at the meeting of 

 the Society on February 9th. Professor Wedl opened the 

 proceedings by contesting the accuracy of Dr. Lostorfer's de- 

 ductions. Dr. Lostorfer's discovery, he said, would be of 

 great importance if it were confirmed. He (Dr. Wedl) had 

 made some researches, and would now give the results. Dr. 

 Lostorfer had asserted that he could with certainty determine 

 the presence of syphilis from an examination of the blood ; 



