2l8 PHARMACEUTICAL BACTERIOLOGY. 



chief carriers and disseminators of the contagions are the women in public 

 houses and the male frequenters of such houses. Lack of personal cleanli- 

 ness is a very fruitful source of spreading the infection. 



2. The innocent (infants, children and adults) are occasionally infected 

 through contact with those afflicted with the diseases, as in shaking hands, 

 kissing, contact with clothing and other articles used by those already in- 

 fected. Physicians, dentists, and nurses may become accidentally infected. 

 Physicians and dentists may inoculate patients accidentally, through the 

 use of improperly disinfected instruments ; this is, however, quite rare. Con- 

 taminated drinking vessels, spoons, forks, etc., may convey the infection. 



3. In both diseases the primary causes are readily destroyed by the use 

 of disinfectants. With absolute cleanliness the diseases could not exist. 

 In brief, the two diseases could not exist if moral and physical cleanliness 

 prevailed. 



4. Both diseases are difficult to cure as already stated. Both are and 

 do become general or systemic in character, and are not local as is generally 

 supposed. Those suffering from these diseases should be isolated and 

 should never be allowed to come in close contact with the innocent. 



5. Physicians, pharmacists and nurses should act as public agents in 

 giving information regarding the transmissibility of, and the difficulty of 

 curing syphilis and gonorrhea and pointing to clandestine prostitution as 

 the most active source of the contagion. It should be made a criminal 

 offense for a syphilitic to convey the contagion to an innocent person. In 

 the army and navy the men receive careful instruction as to preventive 

 measures. This was found necessary as the prevalence of these diseases 

 incapacitated a large percentage of the men from active duty. 



In the treatment and cure of syphilis mercurial and arsenical preparations 

 and the iodides play a very important part. In the treatment of gonorrhea, 

 disinfectants, especially silver nitrate and protargol, play a very important 

 part. The antigonorrheic bacterin has been used with some success as a 

 prophylactic and as a cure in chronic cases. Only competent physicians can 

 treat these diseases properly. All advertised and patented "quick cure" 

 remedies are fakes. 



Recently Ehrlich and Hata have discovered what appears to be a specific 

 in the treatment of syphilis, namely, intramuscular and intravenous injec- 

 tions of dioxydia-amidoarsenobenzol (Salvarsan, or "No. 606"). The 

 tests thus far made have yielded astonishing results. Many of the most 

 severe forms of the disease have been promptly cured by a single dose of 

 this remedy. 



The Wassermann or Wassermann-Noguchi test for syphilis is now 

 generally applied to determine whether or not the Spirochaeta is in the system. 

 The reaction is due to certain bodies in the blood serum of syphilitic persons 



