SOFT SORE. ICQ 



a bubo does not show the organisms having the above 

 characters, it is probably safe to say that the case is not 

 one of plague. 



SOFT SORE. 



A very strong case has been made out in favour of 

 the view that the bacillus described by Unna and by 

 Ducrey is actually the cause of soft sore, though the 

 proof does not rest upon the solid ground demanded by 

 Koch. The bacillus has never been cultivated outside 

 the body, and the chief proof of its pathogenicity rest 

 upon the fact of its invariable presence in true soft sores. 

 It is hardly correct to say that it is invariably absent 

 from other sores, unless, indeed, we extend somewhat our 

 conception of what a soft sore really is ; for the author 

 has found bacilli which were indistinguishable from 

 these in sores which were exactly like those which 

 follow herpes preputialis, though more severe than is 

 generally the case. But it is quite possible that future 

 research will show that the bacillus varies greatly in 

 virulence, and that it is only under certain circum- 

 stances that it produces typical soft sores. At present 

 all we can say about the diagnostic value of the organ- 

 ism is that its presence in the secretion from an ulcer 

 affords strong evidence that the case is really one of 

 chancroid, and that its absence almost certainly nullifies 

 such a diagnosis. It is scarcely necessary to say that 

 syphilis and soft sore (or gonorrhoea and soft sore) may 

 be inoculated at the same time, and the lesions appro- 

 priate to both diseases may be present simultaneously. 



The bacillus in question is a short straight rod, less 

 than a quarter the length of the tubercle bacillus, and 



