CHAPTER III. 

 CHANCROID. 



BACILLUS OF DUCREY. 



General Characteristics. A small, ovoid, strepto-bacillus, with 

 rounded, deeply staining ends, non-motile, non-flagellate, non-sporog- 

 enous; aerobic and optionally anaerobic, non-chromogenic, staining 

 by ordinary methods but not by Gram's method, cultivable on special 

 media only and pathogenic only for man and certain monkeys. 



The chancroid, soft chancre, or non-specific sore, as it is 

 called, is a common venereal affection of both sexes, most 

 frequent among those who give little attention to cleanli- 

 ness. It is characterized by the appearance of a soft reddish 

 papule, which makes its appearance usually upon the genital 

 organs, rarely upon other parts of the body, soon after the 

 infection and soon becomes transformed to an ugly ulcera- 

 tion whose usual tendency is toward slow and persistent 

 enlargement, though in different cases it may be indolent, 

 active, phagedenic or serpiginous. The inguinal or other 

 near-by lymph nodes early enlarge and soon soften and 

 ulcerate. The disease is, therefore, extremely destructive 

 to the tissues invaded, though no constitutional involvement 

 ever takes place. 



Specific Organism. In 1889 Ducrey* described a peculiar 

 organism whose presence he was able to demonstrate with 

 great constancy, sometimes in pure culture in the lesions 

 of chancroid, and which he believed to be the specific organ- 

 ism of the affection. Up to this time the disease was thought 

 to be non-specific, but since, the bacillus of Ducrey has been 

 looked upon with growing suspicion. Unnaf later described 

 an organism resembling that of Ducrey, and the later obser- 

 vations of Krefting,t Peterson, Nicolle, || Cheinisse,** and 



*"Congres. Inter der Dermatol. et de Syphiligr," Paris, 1889, 

 "Compt rendu," p. 229. 



f'Monatschr. f. praktische Der mato logic," Bd. xiv, 1892, p. 485. 

 J"Archiv. f. Dermatol. u. Syphilol.," 1897, p. 263; 1897, p. 41. 

 "Centrabl. f. Bakt.," etc., 1893, xm, p. 743. 

 ||"Med. Moderne," Paris, 1893, iv, p. 735. 

 **".Ann. de Dermat. et de Syphil.," Par., 1894, p. 272. 



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