820 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 832 



patients who were at the threshold of 

 death had been saved from the grave by 

 one injection. 



But not only the spirochete of syphilis 

 has been successfully attacked with this 

 remedy, but also the spirillum of relapsing 

 fever. 



The wonderful effect of 606 and the 

 hopes that can be entertained as to its ulti- 

 mate field of utility are perhaps best illus- 

 trated by the following report of a case, 

 published by Dr. K. Taege in the Miinch- 

 ener med. Wochenschrift, p. 1725. 



The mother became infected with syphi- 

 lis during pregnancy, and the child, when 

 born, presented all the characteristic symp- 

 toms of the disease in a milder degree. It 

 was decided to try the new treatment on 

 the mother in the hope that the child 

 might also obtain sufficient of the remedy 

 through the breast milk to participate in 

 the cure. Strange to relate, in both mother 

 and child an improvement began to set in 

 the third day after the injection of the 

 drug, and as early as the fifth day all signs 

 of the disease had almost completely van- 

 ished, and the child was practically re- 

 stored to perfect health and vigor. 



Of course, the author was at first in- 

 clined to believe that this marvelous effect 

 had been brought about by the transmis- 

 sion of a certain amount of 606 in the milk 

 or perhaps through the agency of arsenous 

 acid split off from the combination ; but 

 this proved entirely erroneous, for exami- 

 nation of the milk with the Marsh test 

 failed to reveal any sign of organic arsenic, 

 while decomposition of the milk with HCl 

 and KCIO3 gave only traces of inorganic 

 arsenic. 



On appealing to Professor Ehrlich for 

 an explanation, he ventured the opinion 

 that the sudden destruction of the spiro- 

 chete in the mother might have set free a 

 large amount of toxic matter from the dead 

 parasites, and that this in turn led to the 



production of antibodies by the cells, 

 which, when transmitted through the 

 milk, exerted the curative effect upon the 

 child. 



What an immense difference between 

 the present-day theories and treatment 

 and those in vogue towards the end of the 

 year 1496 as described in a letter of the 

 Duchess Beatrice of Milan to her sister Isa- 

 belle. Duchess of Mantua, whose husband 

 suffered from the "French disease," as 

 syphilis was then called. Beatrice had been 

 asked for the loan of the services of Leon- 

 ardo da Vinci, the famous painter, sculp- 

 tor, mechanical engineer and inventor of 

 flying machines, but her husband would 

 not part with his artist friend and to 

 sweeten the refusal, Beatrice gives her the 

 following advice at the end of the letter: 

 "I send your illustrious husband, Signore 

 Francesco, a recipe against the French 

 disease, which has been devised by our 

 body physician, Luigi Marliani. It is 

 claimed that it helps. The mercury inunc- 

 tion must be applied in the morning on an 

 empty stomach on the iineven days of the 

 month after the new moon. I have heard 

 that this disease has no other cause than 

 the fatal meeting of some certain planets, 

 especially Mars and Venus." 



To return to the subject, a marked ac- 

 tivity in this branch of synthetic chemis- 

 try soon followed these experimental 

 studies of arsenical preparations. Thus 

 arsenic was produced in its colloidal form 

 by the reduction of arsenic compounds by 

 means of pyrocatechin, amidophenol, etc., 

 in the presence of albumen. An arsenic 

 proteid was obtained by the action of ar- 

 senic trichloride on vegetable albumen free 

 from nuclein. This arsenic compound 

 passes unchanged through the stomach and 

 is decomposed only on reaching the intes- 

 tine. 



Atoxyl, or paraaminophenylarsinic acid, 

 now called arsanilic acid, has been con- 



