244 SYPHILIS. 



Doutrelepont found the bacillus taken from the blood near a 

 syphilitic lesion of the skin, and from a syphilitic primary sclerosis 

 of the upper lip produced a feeble culture upon solidified hydrocele 

 fluid. 



Matterstock (Sitzungsbericht d. pliys.-med. G-esellschaft zu Wurz- 

 burg, 1885, und Ueber Bacillen bei Syphilis, Wiirzburg, 1885), after 

 a careful examination of 100 sections and 150 specimens of secre- 

 tions from syphilitic lesions, supported in the main the views held 

 by Lustgarten, and places great importance upon microscopical 

 examination of syphilitic products as a diagnostic measure. Con- 

 jointly with Bitter, of Osnabriick, he found the disintegrated bacilli 

 described by Doutrelepont in the shape of granular masses, which 

 outlined the size and shape of the bacilli. He often saw the bacilli 

 between the cells and the connective-tissue fibrillse. He states that 

 the bacillus is not present in large numbers in the specimens, and 

 unless carefully searched for may not be found. As it can be found 

 in the lesions of all three stages of the disease, he asserts that its 

 etiological importance can be no longer doubted, even although 

 cultivation and inoculation experiments have so far not furnished 

 the crucial test. Later the same author found similar bacilli in the 

 secretions of the genital organs in patients in whom syphilis could 

 be excluded with certainty. 



Markuse ( Vierteljahrsschrift fur Dermat. und Syph., 1888) on 

 examining 109 cases found Lustgarten's bacilli in 10 of 23 cases of 

 hard chancre, in 43 of 57 of anal condylomata, and once in 19 cases 

 of papules about the mouth examined. In 8 gummata and 2 pus- 

 tular syphilides no bacilli were found. Smegma bacilli w r ere found 

 in 125 cases examined. They differ from the bacilli of syphilis in 

 being more easily decolorized by acids. 



Andromico (" Ueber die parasitare Genese der Syphilis," Viertel- 

 jahrsschrift /. Derm. u. Syph. 9 1886, p. 475) claims to have culti- 

 vated from a flat nodule of the skin in a syphilitic patient, cocco- 

 bacteria which, injected under the skin of a rabbit, produced a 

 typical indurated ulcer, followed by glandular infiltration. He 

 also inoculated a cat with fluid contents of a syphilitic pemphigus 

 with the result of producing a hard, painless swelling followed by 

 a papular eruption of the skin, and loss of hair of the skin covering 

 the abdomen. The fluid injected and the syphilitic lesions in the 

 animal contained the same bacteria which he had cultivated from 

 the syphilitic nodule of the skin. 



Doutrelepont ("Ueber die Bacillen bei Syphilis," Vierteljahrs- 

 schrift f. Derm. u. Syph., 1887, p. 101), after more extended obser- 

 vations, has come to the positive conclusion that bacilli are always 

 present in syphilitic lesions, and even in the blood of patients suf- 



