Ueber das Kongenitalitätsproblem der Syphilis.

Hochsinger, on the basis of lifelong observation, reiterates the view previously expressed by him that syphilis is transmissible through the germinative cells and that intra-uterine infection of the fetus by way of the placenta in the event of postconceptional syphilis of the mother is conceivable under certain conditions but relatively rare. He also restates his position, as a result of careful observation in private patients, that there is a lues congenita of purely paternal or spermatogenic origin in which the mother remains free from evidence of syphilis both clinically and serologically and may later bear healthy children. In this he definitely opposes the view expressed by Matzenauer in 1903 that "without maternal lues there is no congenital syphilis of the child." In support of his view he cites the experimental work of Eberson and others which shows that apparently Spirochaeta pallida may exist or break up into minute granular elements