On March 3, 1905, a young German biologist by the name of Schaudinn discovered under the microscope what is now generally believed to be the germ of this terrible disease. It is a minute, spiral-shaped organism, with six or eight curves, and capable of movement in space. Its place in the scheme of existence is not wholly certain, but the probability seems that it is a protozoan, belonging to the lowest form of animal life. Its very simplicity makes it appalling; we do not understand how anything so innocent in appearance, can occasion such terrible ravages. In the course of the evolution of life how came it into being? We can only surmise. But once having gained a foothold in the body of a human being, the minute organism begins to multiply: and penetrating to any part of the body, it induces the ravages of a destroyer espite all the opposing defences which Nature may raise against it. The discoverer first called it the "Spirochaete pallidum," but later invented a new name--"Treponema pallidum"--by which it is at present generally known. It is almost ceratin that in this minute organism, invisible to the naked eye, we have the causative agent of one of the great destroyers of the human race. A Japanese physician, connected with various phases of research work in the Rockefeller Institute (Dr. Hideyo Noguchi), believed it would be possible to device a method for detecting the existence of these germs of syphilis in certain latent and obscure cases, where the disease was merely suspected. He had no though of inventing a cure for the disease; it was a method of detection only. By ingenious procedures which it is unnecessary here to describe, Dr. Noguchi succeeded in cultivating these germs OUTSIDE THE HUMAN BODY; and after grinding them in a sterile mortar, and subjecting them to heat with other manipulations, he found himself finally in possession of an extract or emulsion to which he gave the name of "luetin." It contains the germs of syphilis; but they are intended to be DEAD GERMS. The experimenter himself says: "I have proposed the name LUETIN for an emulsion or extract of pure culture of Treponema pallidum, which is designed to be employed for obtaining in suitable cases, a specific cutaneous reaction that may become a valuable diagnostic sign in certain stages or forms of syphilitic infection."