A demonstration of treponema pallidum in the brain in cases of general paralysis

Publicado: 28 de diciembre de 2022

Resumen

In the present communication we wish to report the resulte of examinations for Treponema pallidum on seventy paretic brains. One of us (Noguchi) succeeded in finding the pallidum in twelve out of the seventy specimens. ¹
The relationship of paresis to syphilis has, fer years, been one of the foremost topics of medical interest, specially to psychiatrists. Since 1857 when attention was first called ²  to the frequency of syphilis in the history of patients with paresis, the etiological importance of the former disease has steadily gained recognition, until now probably the majority of writers agree with Kraepelin³ that "We can to-day declare with the greatest certainty that syphilitic infection is an essential for the later appearance of paresis", Many, however, including a man of such enormous experience as Nonne, still refuse to concede that syphilis is more than an extremely common causative factor. Nonne⁴ says, "At the outset 1 desire to make it clear that progressive paralysis is not a specific syphilitic disease of the brain".