CHAPTER IV. 

 SYPHILIS. 



ALTHOUGH syphilis is almost as well known as it is 

 widespread, we have not yet discovered for it a definite 

 specific cause. Whether it is due to a protozoan par- 

 asite, or whether it is due to a bacterium, the future 

 must decide. Numerous claims have been made by those 

 whose studies have revealed organisms of one kind or 

 another in syphilitic tissues, but no one has yet suc- 

 ceeded either in isolating, cultivating, or successfully in- 

 oculating them. 



In 1884 and 1885, I^ustgarten published a method for 

 the staining of bacilli which he had found in syphilitic 

 tissues and assumed to be the cause of the disease. The 

 staining, which is very complicated, requires that the 

 sections of tissue be stained in Bhrlich's anilin- water 

 gentian-violet solution for twelve to twenty-four hours at 

 the temperature of the -room, or for two hours at 40 C. ; 

 washed for a few minutes in absolute alcohol ; then im- 

 mersed for about ten seconds in a i J^ per cent, perman- 

 ganate-of-potassium solution, after which they are placed 

 in an aqueous solution of sulphurous acid for one to two 

 seconds, thoroughly washed in water, run through alco- 

 hol and oil of cloves, and finally mounted in Canada 

 balsam dissolved in xylol. 



If the bacilli are supposed to be present in pus or dis- 

 charges from syphilitic lesions, the cover-glasses spread 

 with the material are stained in the same manner, except 

 that for the first washing distilled water instead of abso- 

 lute alcohol is used. 



This method undergoes a modification in the hands of 

 De Giacomi, who prefers to stain the cover-glasses in hot 



205 



