UNUSUAL CASES OF SYPHILIS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Abstract

Many German articles on the pathology of syphilis of the nervous system begin with an apology for taking up such a hackneyed subject. Strangely enough, for more than a decade, except for the changes resulting from malarial treatment, the English literature is relatively silent on what is one of the most important subjects for the clinical neurologist. In the textbooks, syphilis of the nervous system is divided into its well known types. There is first a general division into the parenchymatous and the meningovascular forms. The former is the type known as dementia paralytica; it can be further subdivided into typical and atypical forms, including the juvenile, stationary and Lissauer types. The meningovascular form can be subdivided into the pure meningeal form, with and without gummatous involvement, and vascular syphilis of various types. For descriptive purposes a classification of this sort is necessary and convenient, but cannot always be strictly