SYPHILIS 607 



the other the neurotropic form, which causes general 

 paralysis of the insane. The former on inoculation 

 causes a typical hard chancre, the latter only a squamo- 

 papulous erosion. 



Attempts by Metchnikoff and Roux to prepare an anti- 

 syphilitic serum by inoculating apes and goats with 

 syphilitic virus proved unsuccessful (as did earlier experi- 

 ments with other animals by Hericourt and Richet). The 

 syphilitic virus as ordinarily introduced into man by 

 sexual intercourse probably takes some hours to become 

 generalised, for Metchnikoff found experimentally in apes 

 that if the seat of inoculation were treated with a calomel 

 ointment up to eighteen hours after inoculation infection 

 was prevented. 



By triturating cultures of the Spironema in salt-solution, 

 heating to 60 C. for sixty minutes, and adding 0-5 per 

 cent, of carbolic acid, Noguchi has prepared an agent, 

 termed Luetin, which can be used for a cutaneous reaction 

 for the diagnosis of syphilis. In syphilitic infection 

 redness, sometimes becoming pustular, develops at the 

 site of inoculation. 



The syphilitic virus does not pass through a Berkefeld 

 filter. It is readily destroyed by heat (52 C.) and anti- 

 septics. Adequate treatment with mercury and with 

 salvarsan ("606"), neo-salvarsan , karsivan, galyl, etc., 

 causes diminution or disappearance of the spirochaetes. 



The Wassermann reaction, originally described by 

 Wassermann, Neisser and Briick, is now extensively 

 employed for the diagnosis of syphilitic infection in all its 

 stages. It is a test based on complement-fixation (p. 218), 

 for amboceptor-like bodies are present in the syphilitic 

 blood-serum which, in the presence of a special antigen, fix 

 complement, this being determined by the use of a hsemo- 

 lytic system. When first devised, the spirochaete had not 

 been cultivated, so for the antigen Wassermann, Neisser 



