582 THE PON EM AT A, S PI RON EM AT A, LEPTOSPIRATA 
callitrichus) with pure cultures of Treponema of human origin, and 
reproduced "in them the initial lesions of the disease. The blood of 
these monkeys gave a positive Wassermann reaction, thus confirming 
the relation of the Treponema pallidum to the disease in man. Rabbits 
have been successfully infected with the virus. Bartarelli^ produced 
localized eye lesions by introducing virus from man into the anterior 
chamber of the eye. A small swelling of the cornea took place about 
ten days after inoculation and there was a considerable development 
of Treponemata. Brucker and Gelasesco and Sowade- have corrob- 
orated these results. Hoffmann^ has produced a specific orchitis in 
rabbits. Localized limited growths have been reported in various 
other experimental animals, guinea-pigs, dogs, sheep and cats. These 
inoculations have usually been made on the cornea by scarification, 
and slight nodules have developed. 
Human Pathogenesis.— Syphilis is a chronic disease of man. It is 
primarily a venereal disease, but it may be acquired accidentally by 
surgeons, physicians, and midwives incidental to their practice, or 
by wet nurses who suckle congenitally syphilitic infants. The infec- 
tion may be acquired upon any mucous membrane, or upon the skin, 
if infectious material comes in contact with a break in the continuity 
of the mucous membrane or epidermis. Hereditary transmission 
through the sperm or ovum is theoretically possible,* but not satis- 
factorily proved.* Congenitally syphilitic offspring may be born of 
apparently normal mothers and in no inconsiderable proportion of 
such cases the mother appears to be refractory to infection with the 
disease. This is known as Colles' Law,'' which Osier quotes as follows: 
"That a child born of a mother who is without obvious venereal 
symptoms and which, without being exposed to any infection subse- 
quent to its birth, shows this disease when a few^ weeks old, this child 
will infect the most healthy nurse, whether she suckle it or merely 
handle and dress it, and yet this child is never know to infect its own 
mother, even though she suckle it while it has venereal ulcers in the 
lips and tongue." 
An apparently non-syphilitic child may be born of a syphilitic 
mother. This is known as Profeta's Law. Fetal infection stands in 
rather direct relationship to the stage of the disease in the parent, or 
parents; tertiary syphilis is less likely to result in fetal infection than 
primary or secondary syphilis. 
Both Colles' law and Profeta's law have been shown to be incorrect, 
at least as they are ordinarily construed. Bartel and Stein, '^ Behring,* 
Knopfelmacher and Lehndorffj^'^" have shown by the Wassermann reac- 
» Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., orig., 1906, 41, 320. ^ Loc. cit. 
3 Deutsch. med. \Vchnschr., 1911, 37, 1546. 
* Mohn: Ztschr. f. Geburtsh. u. Gynak., 1907, 59, Heft 2. 
5 Behring: Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1910, 36, 219. 
« Colles: 1837, Quoted from Osier (Practice of Medicine). 
' Wien. klin. Wchnschr., 1908, 21, 721. 
8 Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1910, 36, 219. 
» Med. Klin., 1908, 4, 11S2. »" Ibid., 1909, 5, 1506. 
