SYPHILIS 499 



in these animals by the following method. Intravenous 

 inoculations of dead spirochaete cultures were given every 

 five days over a period of five months, an interval of five 

 months was then allowed to elapse, and finally the living 

 spirochaetes were introduced into the brain, subdurally 

 or intra-cerebrally. 



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 gene- 

 ralised, 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 Treponema in salt-solution, 

 heating to 60 C. for sixty minutes, and adding O5 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 aBerkefeld 

 filter, and hence is not ultra-microscopic. It is readily 

 destroyed by heat (52 C.) and antiseptics. Treatment 

 with mercury and with salvarsan (" 606 ") and neo- 

 salvarsan cause diminution or disappearance of the spiro- 

 chaetes. 



In central nerve lesions salvarsan is more effective 

 when injected into the central nervous system, but this 

 procedure is not free from danger. To obviate this, the 

 salvarsan may be injected intravenously and then some 

 of the patient's serum is injected into the spinal canal by 

 lumbar puncture. 



