EXPERIMENTAL SYPHILIS IN THE RABBIT

Abstract

From a study of the reaction to scrotal inoculation with Treponema pallidum in alarge series of rabbits, it was found that the specific reaction presented the following characteristics. In general, the reaction in the scrotum became apparent within 7 to 14 days after inoculation but was subject to considerable variation. The early reaction took the form of an edematous swelling and congestion associated with a new growth of vessels or of an infiltration with more or less proliferation of fixed tissue cells. These reactions were either confined to a small circumscribed area of the scrotum or were of a diffusely spreading character, and as the infection advanced, the infiltration and proliferation together with such secondary changes as exfoliation, necrosis, and ulceration became the most conspicuous features of the reaction. The course of the reaction in the scrotum was essentially the same as that in the testicle; that is, it was periodic in character and was marked by a phase of active progression followed by quiescence or regression and renewed activity. The scrotal reaction resembled that in the testicle also in the varying character of the reaction, appearing at times as a circumscribed focus of reaction and later becoming diffuse, or first as a diffuse reaction which subsequently became more localized. The lesions produced in consequence of this reaction were of two general types —one a circumscribed indurated granulomatous lesion closely resembling the human chancre, the other a diffuse infiltration more analogous to the secondary skin lesions of man. Both groups of lesions presented the greatest degree of individual variations and possessed no fixed status but were subject to frequent and marked transformations. After a period of from a few weeks to many months, the lesions in the scrotum disappeared spontaneously.