410 



INFECTIVE DISEASES. 







SYPHILIS. 



Syphilis is a disease peculiar to man, and communicable only by 

 inoculation. The local infection is followed by a period of latency, 

 and by a period during which generalised eruptions appear. One 

 attack confers immunity from future attacks. The virus in its 

 most virulent form is found in the primary seat of inoculation, and 



in the indurated glands which 

 follow. It is also supposed to be 

 present in the blood and secretions. 

 Lustgarten, Eve and Lingard have 

 found bacteria which they believed 

 to be specific. 



Bacillus in Syphilis (Lustgar- 

 ten).- Rods resembling the bacilli 

 of leprosy and tuberculosis, 3 to 4 //, 

 long, -8 fj, thick. Two or more 

 colourless, ovoid points in the course 

 of the rod are visible with a high 



power; it is thought that possibly they are spores. The bacilli 

 are always found in the interior of nucleated cells, which are 

 more than double the size of 

 leucocytes. They have been ob- 

 served in the discharge of the v'f^S '"''n^S--^-^-''^-'?-' 

 primary lesion, and in tertiary vV^Sfe^ / ^ ^.^;. 

 gummata. 



Alvarez and Tavel state that 

 an identical bacillus is found in 

 normal secretions (smegma). Eve 

 and Lingard have described a bacil- 

 lus associated with specific lesions, 

 which differs from the above in its 

 morphology and behaviour towards 

 staining reagents. 



FIG. 175. COVER-GLASS PREPARA- 

 TION OF PUS FROM A CHANCRE, X 



1050 (LUSTGARTEN). 



. - >-?r- N 



'- 









FIG. 176. WANDERING CELL CON- 

 TAINING BACILLI (LDSTGABTEN). 



METHODS OF STAINING THE BACILLUS OF SYPHILIS. 



Method of Lustgarten : 



Sections are placed for twelve to twenty-four hours in the following 

 solution, at the ordinary temperature of the room, and finally the solution 

 is warmed for two hours at 60 C. : 



Concentrated alcoholic solution of gentian-violet 

 Aniline water 



11 



100 



