Die Behandlung der Quartaeren Syphilis mit Akuten Infektionen

Abstract

This monograph on the treatment of patients who have quaternary syphilis with acute infections, written by one who has himself contributed to the development of the method, presents a critical review of the subject and indicates the problems still to be solved and the methods by which their solution may be attempted. The observation that accidental intercurrent infections may favorably affect chronic mental and other pathologic conditions has engaged the attention of clinicians since the time of Hippocrates and may be looked on as the empiric basis of the practice of producing "artificial" infections as a therapeutic measure. The evolution of this primitive, guiding observation or "lead" into the present day methods of inoculation, as developed by Wagner-Jauregg and his predecessors, is traced by Kihn in a most interesting introduction, giving a historical perspective with many sidelights on more or less closely related therapeutic procedures. A discussion of the "nonspecific treatment of syphilogenic nervous diseases" (i. e., the production of pyrexia with foreign proteins and various chemicals) leads up to the chief topic of the book: malarial inoculation, which is considered from every angle. The general parasitology; the conservation of the parasite; the selection of a suitable strain; the several modes of inoculation and their technic all receive attention. The preparation of the patient, the indications for and the clinical course of the infection and its complications involving the various organs, the termination of the fever by means of the administration of quinine and other drugs are dealt with extensively.