246 SYPHILIS. 



point of junction of the two cocci. They exhibited active move- 

 ments, and reproduction was seen to take place by simple segmen- 

 tation. Gram's method of staining proved most successful. Iso- 

 lated cocci, the authors believe, exist in the blood of patients the 

 subject of latent syphilis, and in cultures made from them the 

 diplococcus appears. With a pure culture seven rabbits, two sheep, 

 five dogs, and one white mouse were inoculated. Under strict 

 antiseptic precautions the microbes were introduced into the sub- 

 cutaneous tissue through a minute incision. Diplococci were found 

 in the blood of the dogs and rabbits after ten days, in the sheep 

 after three weeks, and their presence remained constant for several 

 months. Among the dogs were four females ; two of them were 

 pregnant at the time of inoculation, and all of the pups died soon 

 after they were born. Some of the inoculated animals died at dif- 

 ferent times, and the others, with the exception of two, were killed 

 in from two to eight months after inoculation. In none of the 

 animals could any infection of the skin or mucous membranes 

 be found. Induration at the point of inoculation was noticed 

 in only one, and it disappeared eighteen days after the inoculation. 

 In all of the animals characteristic pathological changes were found 

 in the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. The authors believe that 

 the syphilitic virus in animals, like in man, acts upon the blood- 

 vessels, only that in animals the morbid changes take place in 

 other organs. In animals the vessels of the skin remain exempt, 

 while the vessels in the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys are diseased. 

 Quite frequently the vessels of the brain were also found diseased, 

 but very seldom the vessels of the intestines. Syphilitic gummata 

 were also found less frequently than in man. The authors claim 

 that the microbes live in the circulating blood, and they found 

 them in great abundance in the affected tissue, in which they 

 appeared to have only a limited existence. They believe that 

 syphilis becomes latent as soon as the cocci cease to grow. 



From the above extracts of the current literature on the etiology 

 of syphilis, it can be seen that different microbes have been found 

 in the blood and tissue lesions of patients suffering from syphilis, 

 and that the discoverers of each of them claimed to have found the 

 microbic cause of syphilis. So far, no uniform results have been 

 obtained, and it must be left for future research to discover a new 

 microbe, or to substantiate some one of the claims made in the past. 

 This much we can say for Lustgarten, that he has at least pointed 

 out the proper method for future investigations. 



The Bacillus of Smegma. 



Soon after the publication of Lustgarten's second paper, Tavel 

 (Archiv de physiol. et path., No. 7, 1885) announced that he had 



