424 BACILLI IN CHRONIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



smegma bacilli found under the prepuce of healthy persons are identical 

 with the bacilli found by Lustgarten and others in sections of tissues involved 

 in syphilomata. In the absence of pure cultures and inoculation experiments 

 it is impossible to establish identity, however similar may be the characters 

 referreu to. Several well-known pathogenic bacilli resemble quite as closely 

 in these particulars other bacilli which have, nevertheless, been differentiated 

 from them by culture and inoculation experiments. We may mention 

 especially in this connection the bacillus of diphtheria, as obtained from the 

 pseudo-membranous exudation in a genuine case of this disease, and the 

 pseudo diphtheria bacilli found by Roux and Yersin in the fauces of healthy 

 children. On the other hand, since it has been shown that similar bacilli 

 are common in preputial smegma, we cannot attach great importance to the 

 finding of Lustgarten's bacillus in primary syphilitic sores ; and it has not 

 been found in sufficient numbers, or with sufficient constancy, by those who 

 have searched for it subsequently to the publication of Lustgarten's inves- 

 tigations, to give strong support to the view that it is the specific infectious 

 agent in syphilis. Baumgarten, who has searched in vain for Lustgarten's 

 bacillus in uncomplicated visceral syphilomata, suggests that the bacilli 

 found occasionally in such lesions were perhaps tubercle bacilli and repre- 

 sented a mixed infection. As the bacillus under consideration has not been 

 obtained in cultures, we have no information as to its biological characters 

 and pathogenesis. 



THE SYPHILIS BACILLUS OF EVE AND LINGARD. 

 Eve and Lingard (1886) report that they have obtained in cultures from 

 the blood and diseased tissues of syphilitics who have not undergone mer- 

 curial treatment, bacilli which in their form and dimensions resemble the 

 tubercle bacilli, but which stain readily by the common aniline colors and 

 by Gram's method, and are not stained by Lustgarten's method. They grow 

 readily upon solidified blood serum, forming a thin, pale-yellow or brown- 

 ish-yellow layer. Inoculations of pure cultures into apes were without 

 result. The negative results which have attended the culture experiments 

 and microscopical examinations of the blood and diseased tissues, made by 

 many competent bacteriologists in other parts of Europe, make it appear 

 probable that the bacilli described by the English investigators named belong 

 to some saprophytic species, and that they are not usually present in syphilo- 

 mata or the blood of syphilitic patients. 



MICROCOCCI OF DISSE AND TAGUCHI. 



Disse and Taguchi (1886) claim to have obtained from the blood of syphi- 

 litics micrococci which they were able to cultivate in artificial media at 20 

 to 40 C., and which formed on the surface of such media a grayish- white 

 layer consisting of diplococci which are motile and of larger motion less cocci. 

 The diplococci are said to originate from division of the larger cocci. Inocu- 

 lations into rabbits, dogs, and sheep gave rise to chronic interstitial inflam- 

 matory processes in the lungs and liver, to granulomata in various organs, 

 and to fattv degenerative changes in the walls of the arteries, which, in the 

 opinion of the authors named, correspond with the pathological changes 

 produced by syphilitic infection in man. We remark, with reference to the 

 supposed etiological relation of this coccus, that bacteriologists in Europe 

 have not confirmed the authors named as to the presence of this micrococcus 

 in the blood of syphilitics, and that the micrococcus of progress! vegranuloma 

 formation described bv Manfredi produces similar pathological changes in 

 inoculated animals; also that there is no evidence that the animals experi- 

 mented upon are subject to syphilitic infection. 



BACILLUS OF GOLASZ. 



Golasz (1894) has published in the Comptes Rendus of the French Acad- 

 eim a inscription of a "polymorphous microbe," which he claims to have 



