228 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



Method of Staining. — The bacillus of Lustgarten stains 

 with the usual basic aniline dyes, and also by Gram's 

 method. 



Lustgarten's method of staining is as follows : Sections 

 are placed in gentian-violet aniline-water for twelve to 

 twenty-four hours at the ordinary temperature of the room, 

 then for two hours at 40° C. The sections are transferred 

 to absolute alcohol for a few minutes, then placed for ten 

 seconds in 15 per cent, solution of permanganate of 

 potassium, and washed in sulphurous acid. If the groimd- 

 substance of the sections is not completely decolourised, 

 the second part of the process must be repeated. After 

 this the sections are dehydrated, cleared, and mounted in 

 balsam. These bacilli, after staining by the Ziehl-Neelsen 

 method (unlike the tubercle bacilli), are easily decolourised 

 by mineral acids. 



In searching for the bacillus of Lustgarten in the 

 syphilitic lesions in congenital syphilis, several observers 

 have failed to find it, but have reported streptococci as well 

 as the capsulated diplococci of Disse and Tagucchi. 



Growth on Media. — Eve and Lingard reported in the year 

 1886 that they had succeeded in cultivating from the blood 

 of syphilitic patients a bacillus much resembhng the bacillus 

 of tubercle, but which grew readily on blood serum, forming 

 a thin, yellowish-brown layer. 



In the same year Disse and Tagucchi claimed to have dis- 

 covered a diplococcus which they were able to grow on 

 artificial media, and with which they were able to produce 

 a disease in animals which they considered analogous to 

 syphihs. 



The discovery of the bacillus of syphilis is also claimed 

 by Dr. Van Neissen,* of Wiesbaden, who has described a 

 micro-organism in the blood of syphilitic patients, which he 

 * Lancet, January 4, 1896. 



