43 Syphilis 



Varney* found that lecithin was a disappointing reagent 

 for making tests of syphilitic blood, because of its insta- 

 bility and because it formed a cloudy emulsion instead of 

 a solution. It also caused a pronounced precipitate in the 

 control serum, making it difficult to differentiate the posi- 

 tive reaction. He found that more accurate estimations 

 could be made by the employment of solutions of the bile- 

 salts, the most favored being taurine. 



The clinical test for determining syphilis by the use of 

 this reagent is very simple and is said to be fairly accu- 

 rate. According to Varney the reaction may fail in from 

 5 to 15 per cent, of cases of syphilis, but never shows in 

 non-syphilitic cases. 



The Varney method is as follows : 



Two drops of the perfectly clear serum to be tested and 

 2 drops of perfectly clear normal serum to serve as a control 

 are placed in two small test-tubes respectively. To each 

 are added 14 drops of a i per cent, solution of taurine. 

 The tubes are corked and well shaken and then stood aside 

 at room temperature and examined occasionally for from 

 twelve to eighteen hours. The syphilitic serum throws 

 down a characteristic precipitate, sometimes beginning in 

 three hours. The normal serum and serums not syphilitic 

 may throw down precipitates after eighteen hours, but these 

 must be ruled out. The syphilitic precipitate is tenacious 

 and semicrystalline and does not disappear upon slight 

 agitation of the tube. 



According to Noguchi,f cases of secondary syphilis which 

 have been under prolonged and proper medication do not 

 exhibit the globulin increase and usually fail to give the 

 Wassermann reaction. This may explain Varney 's observa- 

 tion that the serum of syphilitics fails to give the reaction 

 in from 5 to 15 per cent, of the cases. 



Treatment. The discovery of the micro-organism has 

 been followed by a method of prophylaxis suggested by 

 Metschnikoff,J in which a 30 per cent, calomel ointment is 

 thoroughly rubbed upon exposed surfaces after suspicious 

 contacts, and followed by the administration of atoxyl for 

 the destruction of the spirochaetes when but few are in the 

 blood. 



* " Wayne County Medical Society," Oct. 5, 1908; " Detroit Medical 

 Journal," Oct., 1908. 



t "Journal of Experimental Medicine," Jan. 9, 1909, xi, No. i, p. 84. 

 J "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," 1907, xxi, p. 753. 



