SPIROCH^ETES. 



Bertarelli and Bovero examined forty-two cases and 

 found the spirochaste present in twenty-six, absent 

 in sixteen. They noted the scanty numbers of the 

 organisms which could be found in the primary sore. 

 Jaquet and Sevin were also struck by the difficulty 

 of finding it in this position. Risso and Cipollina, and 

 also Siebert, record the inconstancy of the organism 

 in syphilitic lesions. There appears to be agreement 

 that the spirochsete is not found in cases of "malig- 

 nant syphilis" (see below). This is curious, since the 

 more severe the disease, the greater the numbers of the 

 pathogenic organisms which should theoretically be 

 present. Even if these cases depend rather on a weak- 

 ness of resistance on the part of the patient than on in- 

 creased virulence of the spirochaete, there should still be 

 plenty of the latter present. 1 The possibility that the 

 condition is due to a mixed infection must, however, be 

 borne in mind. 



The relationship of the spirochaetes to the actual 

 lesions of the disease presents some points of peculiar- 



^he title of a paper by Herxheimer (Deut. med. Wochenschr., 

 1905, XXX, 1687) suggests that he found Sp. pallida in malig- 

 nant syphilis, but the paper is not given in full. 



