The etiology of syphilis / by Simon Flexner.

  • Simon Flexner
Date:
[1905?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The etiology of syphilis / by Simon Flexner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Z The successful inoculation of monkeys and apes with syphilitic virus has revived interest in the question of transmission of syphilis to the lower animals. Were it merely a matter of suscepti- bility to infection in these animals the question would have a theoretical interest only. But when it is considered that there are many problems of syphilitic infection which have failed of solution because observation was limited wholly to man, and when it is further recalled that the experi- mental study of other diseases has given the keys to unlock what formerly appeared as insuperable difficulties, we are permitted to believe that the study of the difficult and tangled subject of syphilis in man may also be aided through this means. We owe to Metschnikoff and Roux* the demon- stration that apes are subject to inoculation with syphilitic virus. The earlier literature, as you all are aware, contains references to the possibility of communicating syphilis to different classes of vertebrates. While in most instances the at- tempts were regarded as failures, there are several experiments recorded for which success has been claimed. Auzias-Turenne’ believed in 1866 that he had produced syphilis in the cat; and the next year Legros and Lanceraux?® de- scribed specific lesions in the guinea-pig. Swine were thought especially subject to inoculation, and at one period they were used for numerous experiments. Martineau*, Adrian®, Hugel and Holzhauer® all recorded successful results; but all these mistaken observations were set aside by Neisser’s’ conclusive experiments. The case is, however, quite different in respect to the inoculation of monkeys, which were chosen because of their closer zoological relationship to 1 Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, 1903, XVII, 809. 2 La Syphilisation, 1878, p. 422. Cited by Metschnikoff and oux, 3 Cited by Roux and Metschnikoff. 4 nes : 5 Archiv f. Dermatologie u. Syphilis, 1899, XLVII, 163. 6 Ibid: 19600, LI, 238. Gi Mail, Were, IID, Oey
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