RT Journal
A1 Wright BL
T1 IMmunity against tuberculosis in general paresis
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1909
FD February 27
VO LII
IS 9
SP 717
OP 717
DO 10.1001/jama.1909.02540350043016
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1909.02540350043016
AB To the Editor: 
    —In The Journal, Feb. 13, 1909, Dr. A. J. Rosanoff, in his article on "Immunity Against Tuberculosis in General Paresis," endeavors to establish the fact that syphilis, the great causative factor in general paresis, establishes an immunity against tuberculosis.I do not think that this can be substantiated by the facts; the immunity apparent from his statistics is in my opinion undoubtedly due to the antisyphilitic treatment to which, in the past, these patients have been subjected.Many good authorities now think that general paresis is more directly due to the use of overdoses of mercury rather than to syphilis itself, which is a further argument for the drug origin of the immunity which Dr. Rosanoff would ascribe to syphilis. He asks: "How would the course of a case of tuberculosis be affected by a superadded syphilitic infection?"From my own experience I answer: most disastrously, unless