Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
In any event, the patient quite recovered from her mental symptoms in a
month. She was then able to tell us of a previous attack of depression
some 12 years previously, namely, at the age of 26. It appears that she
had at that time been committed to a hospital for the insane.
1. In this case, in which the diagnosis of manic-depressive
psychosis and not paretic neurosyphilis was made, are we sure that
the symptoms that we term manic-depressive psychosis were not
actually produced by syphilotoxins? In other words, in the absence
of spinal fluid signs of inflammation or chemical change, might it
not be possible for generalized syphilis outside the nervous
system to produce manic-depressive symptoms? There is so far in
the literature no experimental or other evidence of syphilotoxins.
The existence of products and substances permitting the W. R. and
the gold sol reaction is not of course evidence of syphilotoxins.
Although there is no evidence of soluble syphilotoxins, it is
thought that in the so-called Järisch-Herxheimer reaction (the
intensification of clinical symptoms after salvarsan injection)
effects may be due to the liberation of products from the killed
bodies of spirochetes. Such endotoxins are not here in question.
2. Is visceral syphilis, such as gumma of the liver, able to produce
characteristic syphilitic reactions in the spinal fluid? We have
had an autopsied case in which there was a “paretic” gold sol
reaction of the fluid (though without other signs). The autopsy
showed gummata of the liver. However, the finer anatomy of the
nervous system showed a mild but definite meningo-encephalitic
process, which was doubtless responsible for the gold sol
reaction.
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