CHAPTER XXXIV 



SYPHILIS 



Treponema Pallidum (Schaxjdinn and Hoffmann) 



Synonym. — Spirochseta pallida. 



General Characteristics. — A non-chromogenic, non-aerogenic, anaerobic, 

 minute, slender, closely coiled, flexible, motU'e, ' flagellated, non-sporogenous, 

 non-liquefying, spiral organism, cultivable upon specially prepared media, patho- 

 genic for man and certain of the lower animals, staining by certain methods Only 

 and not by Gram's method. 



Althoxtgh syphilis has been well known for centuries, its specific 

 cause has but recently been discovered. The supposition that the 

 disease could not be successfully communicated to any of the lower 

 animals was supposed to explain the delay, but has not proved 

 to be the case, for in spite of the discovery by Metchnikoff and 

 Roux* that chimpanzees could be successfully inoculated with virus 

 from a human lesion, the confirmation of their work by Lassarf and 

 others, and the additional discovery by Metchnikoff and Roux,t 

 that it is also possible to infect macaques with sj^hiUs, the specific 

 organism was, after all, discovered for the first time in matter 

 secured from human lesions. 



It has long been known that preputial smegma and various 

 ulcerative lesions of the generative organs contain spiral organisms. 

 Bordet and Gengou§ studied them with care, expecting to find that 

 they' were concerned with the etiology of syphilis, but it was to 

 Schaudinn and HoffmannjI that the discovery of the specific micro- 

 organism is to be credited. These investigators studied chancres, 

 syphilitic bubos and mucous patches, both by examination of matter 

 collected from the surfaces of the living tissue, and by sections of 

 excised tissue. The almost uniform result was the discovery of spiral 

 organisms of which two chief varieties were particularly studied. 

 One of these was very slender, uniformly and relatively tightly 

 coiled, and seen with difl&culty because of its tenuity and because it 

 could scarcely be induced to stain by any method tried. This organ- 

 ism was found only in lesions from cases of syphilis, never in control 

 cases. Because of its pallor when stained they called it Spirochseta 

 pallida and because it was apparently constant in syphilis and absent 



* "Ann. de I'lnst. Pasteur," Dec, 1903, p. 809. 

 t "Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1903, p. 1189. 

 j "Annates de I'Inst. Pasteur," Jan., 1904. 

 § "Bulletin de I'acad. de med. Paris," May 16, 1905. 

 II "Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," May 4, 1905. 

 761 



