80 BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



work painted or varnished, mattresses and pillows 

 discarded, bed and body clothing sterilized, all toys 

 and books destroyed, and the ward may stand empty 

 for a month, open to the sun and air; and when 

 opened, with only new patients and new nurses, a 

 fresh epidemic will occur within a fortnight, and 

 worse than all, this process may have to be repeated 

 three or four times, covering a period of months, 

 while every doctor and nurse in the hospital is exer- 

 cising every possible precaution which intelligence 

 and ingenuity can contrive, to control it. 



A gonococcus vaccine has been employed for gono- 

 rrhceal rheumatism, with favorable results. 



The lower animals are not susceptible to infection 

 from the gonococcus, although the injection of the 

 poisonous products contained in cultures have caused 

 death in some animals. The gonococci do not in- 

 vade the tissues of the lower animals. 



SYPHILIS 



Syphilis is a chronic infectious disease character- 

 ized by certain lesions of which the chancre, the 

 gumma, and the mucous patch are the most destruc- 

 tive. 



Syphilis is liable or may infect any or every tissue 

 of the body. Efforts to identify the microorganism 



