AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE PROPHYLAXIS OF SYPHILIS WITH ARSPHENAMIN, NEO-ARSPHENAMIN AND SULPHARSPHENAMIN

A number of clinical reports have appeared in the literature urging the immediate administration (single dose) of arsphenamin or neo-arsphenamin to persons exposed within twenty-four hours or less to syphilitic infection. Regarding the value of this practice, syphilologists are not in general accord. Michel and Goodman¹ were the first American authors to advocate the use of the arsphenamin in this manner. In the foreign literature, two human experimental inoculations and their abortion (one with arsphenamin and the other with the sodium salt of the acetyl derivative of oxyaminophenyl arsinic acid) are recorded. Dr. Magian,² in order to establish the value of arsenical injections in the prevention of systematization of Spirochaeta pallida, inoculated himself on the forearm with serum obtained from a primary lesion and containing, on dark-field examination, a large number of spirochetes. One hour later, he took an intravenous injection of 0.6 gm. arsphenamin. On subsequent observation,