SYPHILITIC INFECTION OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM OF THE RABBIT

Abstract

Since it was first shown that rabbits were susceptible to infection with Spirochaeta pallida , numerous attempts have been made to devise means of producing an infection of the central nervous system in these animals which might be utilized in studying this phase of human syphilis. For the most part, the experiments which have been carried out appear to have been based on the assumption that this could not be accomplished by a simple testicular or scrotal inoculation, but that it was necessary to resort to some intensive form of inoculation, such as an intravenous, intracardial or intracranial inoculation or to the use of repeated inoculations of various kinds. This idea may be accounted for in part by the use of recently isolated strains of Spirochaeta pallida and in part by the apparent inability to produce a generalized disease in the rabbits by ordinary methods of inoculation. How successful these efforts