The clinical pathology of syphilis of the eye / by Sydney Stephenson.

  • Stephenson, Sydney, 1862-1923
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The clinical pathology of syphilis of the eye / by Sydney Stephenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    IO arrangement. The only other spirillum possessing a fixed spiral disposition is the Spirochceta dentium, a common inhabitant of the mouth. That organism stains with the ordinary stains, and its length is only about one-half thlat o*f the Spirochceta -pallida. The technique of collecting material for the demonstration of the Spirochceta pallida may be described at follows :—The sore or other external lesion is first cleansed with bits of wool damped with saline, and is then squeezed with the fingers or scraped lightly with a blunt instrument. The serous fluid thereby obtained is smeared lightly upon the surface of several cover-slips. An even better plan is that recommended by Phillips and Glynn. The lesion is cleansed with cotton wool, and then wiped over with wool previously soaked in methylated spirit. After a few moments, the alcohol is wiped away, and the clear serum which soon exudes is taken for the purposes of the examination. In order to find the spirochaetes, several plans are in vogue, as follows (a) Giemsa's Stain.—The preparation, obtained as described above, is fixed by gentle heat, and is then stained with azur II-eosin. Ten drops of the stain are gently mixed with io c.c. of tap water, and in accordance with the plan recom- mended by McDonaght6), the smear is covered with the mixture, and heated over the flame'until vapour rises. It is then left for thirty seconds, when the fluid is poured away. Fresh stain is poured on to the specimen, which is again heated. The process is repeated four times all told. Finally, the speci- men is washed in tap water, dried, and mounted. There are other methods of staining smear preparations of the Spirochceta pallida, as Marino’s and Leishman’s, but we need scarcely discuss these in this brief sketch. (b) Burri’s Method.—The secretion from the suspect lesion is placed upon a slide and mixed, while still moist, with an equal quantity of liquid Chinese ink. From the mixture cover-films are prepared, and examined with the oil immersion lens. The unstained spirochaetes stand out very distinctly against the dark background produced by the ink. By the way, a special ink, known as Gunther-
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