/i53 TKXT-BOOK OF BACTERIOLOGY. 



been found which behave very similarly, though not precisely in the 

 same way as regards staining. 



That the tubercle and lepra bacilli would also stain on his sys- 

 tem was noticed by Lustgarten himself. Yet Lustgarten's 

 bacilli lose their color rapidly in hydrochloric, nitric, and sulphuric 

 acids, while the tubercle and lepra bacilli do so only after long ex- 

 posure to their action. 



Then the discovery was made simultaneously by Matterst6ck, 

 Alvarez, and Tavel, that in the preputial and vulvar smegma rod- 

 cells occur which may be stained precisely according to Lustgar- 

 ten's directions, and which in their appearance are scarcely distin- 

 guishable from the supposed syphilis bacilli. 



The correctness of this observation has been corroborated on 

 all hands, and has often been adduced against the claim that Lust- 

 garten's bacilli were the cause of syphilis. At first, it is true, a 

 slight but regularly-occurring difference was thought to exist be- 

 tween the smegma bacilli and those of Lustgarten. The former 

 were said to lose their color much more quickly than the latter 

 under the influence of alcohol. Further experiments, however, have 

 not confirmed this statement, and there remains but one argument 

 in favor of the syphilis bacilli — their occurrence in the tissue. Here 

 there is no chance of their being confounded with smegma bacilli, 

 as there was, perhaps, in the case of cover-glass preparations of 

 ulcerous secretions, for it is not conceivable that smegma bacilli 

 could penetrate into the deeper parts of sj'philitic scleroses or even 

 into gumma. 



A definite solution of the question is clearly not yet possible. 

 Verj' distinguished investigators — as for example Doutrelepont, who 

 has paid special attention to the subject — are of the opinion that 

 Lustgarten's bacilli do in fact stand in some connection with syphilis. 

 Others are of the opposite opinion, but all are convinced that fur- 

 ther progress can only be made by the substitution of a better 

 method, and that the discovery of such an improved or a radically 

 new method must be our immediate object of search. Especially 

 should our efforts be directed to the artificial cultivation of syphilis 

 bacteria outside the body — an undertaking which has as yet baffled 

 all attempts. 



VI. BACILLUS OF GLANDERS (MALLEUS). 



Tuberculosis, leprosy, and syphilis stand nearly related in re- 

 gard to the pathological changes which they produce in the tissues, 

 and are in this respect akin to a fourth affection, which, however. 



