"Spirochæta pallida" has been demonstrated in the organs of hereditary syphilitics by a number of observers. Just recently Levaditi publishes an important contributions to this subject,2 in which several interesting facts are brought to light. Thanks to an improved staining method (impregnation of small pieces of formalin fixed tissue with silver nitrate, reduction with pyrogallic acid, and counterstaining), Levaditi is able to establish more clearly the relations of the spirochete to the lesions in hereditary syphilis than heretofore possible. He shows that organs and tissues most involved in the syphilitic process contain the largest number of organisms, namely, the liver, the lungs, the adrenals, and the skin, in the order given, thus demonstrating the rôle of the spirochete to be more important than that of a mere secondary invader.
In acute, rapidly fatal cases the parasites are more diffusely distributed, in the chronic, tardy cases they are present mostly