56 SPIROCH^TES. 



as in making post-mortem examinations; hence it 

 would seem that the organism quickly loses its viru- 

 lence on the death of the host. 



Congenital Syphilis. Infection may be conveyed to 

 the foetus in utero from either parent. Whether the 

 actual spermatozoon is infected cannot be demonstrated ; 

 certainly the causal organism can pass from the mater- 

 nal blood, by way of the placenta, into the vessels of 

 the foetus. In this way congenital syphilis is produced. 

 The syphilitic foetus often dies before birth, and in such 

 still-born foetuses the Spiroch&ta pallida is found in 

 practically all the organs of the body most abundantly 

 in the liver (see Fig. 88), and suprarenal capsules. 1 



It is generally supposed that resistance to the Sp. 

 pallida is mainly effected by phagocytosis; but Zabo- 

 lotny and Maskalowetz find that the serum of syphilitic 

 subjects has an agglutinating and also a "lytic" power, 

 so that the processes at work in producing recovery 

 and immunity may be complex in character. 2 



Most attempts to pass the virus of syphilis through 

 a porcelain filter have failed; but Jancke records one 



1 Some of the actual findings are : In congenital syphilis in the 

 eye and nasal mucus (Bab), in the blood and in the lungs (De 

 Sousa and Pereira), in the bronchial epithelium and in miliary 

 gummas (Benda), in the bullae of pemphigus (Hoffmann, Leixer, 

 Levaditi), in the testicles (Fouquet), in osteitis (Bertarelli), in the 

 urine (Huebschmann), in the meconium (Simmonds), and in the 

 placenta of the mother (Wallich and Levaditi). In the acquired 

 disease, besides its localisation in the connective tissue of the pri- 

 mary sore, and in the lymphatic glands and in the blood in the 

 secondary stage, it was found by Ehrmann in the nerve-sheaths, 

 by Follet in the saliva. Veillon and Girard attribute the roseolar 

 rash to the formation of embolic masses of the spirochaetes in 

 the blood-vessels. The organism may in rare instances be found 

 in the cerebro-spinal fluid (Gaucher and Merle). It is also found 

 in aortitis (Reuter, Schmorl) . The spirochaetes lie as a rule between 

 the cells of the host; but they may be seen in polymorphonuclear 

 leucocytes (Gierke) where they may be undergoing phagocy- 

 tosis, and also inside the cells of the liver in congenital syphilis 

 (Levaditi). 



2 The formation of a copula or amboceptor has already been 

 noted. An account of the so-called Wassermann Reaction, based 

 on this occurrence, does not fall within the scope of this little work. 



