SYPHILIS. 355 



gives place to the formation of septate, V-shaped, and 

 branched forms. It seems to be normally a strepto-ba- 

 cillns in its early stages, but eventually becomes very 

 pleomorphous, varying in appearance from a chain of 

 oval cocci to the hypha of the moulds. There seems to 

 be nothing peculiar about the staining-capacity of the 

 bacillus. It stains with the ordinary solutions of the 

 aniliu dyes, retains the stain of Gram's method, and is 

 decolorized by mineral acids. 



Dohle ' succeeded in staining certain protoplasmic 

 bodies in the tissues in syphilis, which resembled the 

 actively motile protoplasmic bodies which he had pre- 

 viously encountered in the discharges. They were for 

 the most part round or oval, sometimes with irregular 

 outlines, and were provided with flagella. The staining 

 took place in a mixture of hematoxylon and carbol-fuch- 

 sin, subsequently treated with iodin or chromatin, and 

 washed in alcohol. 



Convinced that these bodies were the cause of syphilis, 

 he excised small fragments from gummata and other 

 syphilitic tissues, and placed them beneath the skin of 

 guinea-pigs, which subsequently fell ill with a chronic 

 marasums which ultimately caused death. 



In the inoculation experiments of van Niessen there 

 were observed as evidences of the specificity of the 

 organism discovered by him: (i) abortion in pregnant 

 female rabbits; (2) extra-genital primary lesions on the 

 ears of inoculated rabbits in the form of nodes; (3) sec- 

 ondary ulcer and tumor formations, and irregular lesions, 

 such as occasional thrombosis and pneumonia. 



The researches of others have, up to the present time, 

 entirely failed to confirm the results of Van Niessen' s 

 work. 



1 Miinch. med. Wochenschrift, 1897, No. 43. 



