1 14 BACTERIOLOGY, 



i- would grow only when all oxygen was excluded and 



osv 



fresh tissue of the kidney or liver was added to the 

 culture media. These spiral organisms, or spirochetes, 

 as they are sometimes called, are actively motile and 

 stain with difficulty. They can be found in all dis- 

 eased organs and tissues in the earlier stages of the 

 disease, but not always in the later stages. They are 

 readily destroyed by drying, and are killed by the 

 ordinary disinfectant solutions such as bichloride of 

 mercury i : 1000 and carbolic acid 5 per cent. 

 Path of The infection takes place through small injuries 



infection 



or cracks in the skin or mucous membranes, and is 

 spread, in the vast majority of cases, through sexual 

 intercourse. On this account syphilis has been termed 

 a venereal disease. It is quite possible to become 

 infected in other ways. People with syphilitic sores 

 in the mouth may transmit the infection to others by 

 kissing or from drinking-glasses or eating-utensils 

 that they have used. Wet-nurses may become infected 

 by nursing a child that is infected. Physicians may 

 become infected in the performance of professional 

 duties, as in the examining of patients and in the 

 attendance of women in confinement. Nurses can be 

 infected from the sores of patients under their care. 

 This kind of infection is, fortunately, not very com- 

 mon, and may be prevented entirely by careful disin- 

 fection of the hands after attending such cases, or by 

 the use of rubber gloves. Children may be infected 

 in the uterus or, during labor, from sores in vagina. 

 Infection manifests itself first by a sore called a 



