r marvel
than the action of mercury. The more superficial the eruption, the
quicker it vanishes, so that in the course of a few days all evidence of
the disease may disappear. This is especially true of the grayish
patches in the mouth and about the genitals, which have already been
described as the most dangerously contagious lesions of syphilis. It is
evident, therefore, that to give salvarsan in a case of contagious
syphilis is to do away with the risk of spreading the disease in the
quickest and most effective fashion. It is as if a person with scarlet
fever could be dipped in a disinfecting bath and then turned loose in
the community without the slightest danger of his infecting others. How
much scarlet fever would there be if every case of the disease could be
treated in this way? There would be as little of it as there now is of
smallpox, compared to the wholesale plagues of that disease which used
to kill off the population of whole towns and counties in the old days.
If we could head off the crops of contagious sores in every syphilitic
by the use of "606," syphilis in the same way would take a long step
toward its disappearance. It is not a question, in this connection, of
curing the disease with salvarsan, but of preventing its spread, and in
doing that, salvarsan is one of the things we have been looking for for
centuries.

+The Treatment of Syphilis With Salvarsan.+--Salvarsan, the original
"606," was improved on by Ehrlich in certain ways, which make it easier
for the ordinary physician to use it. The improved salvarsan is called
neosalvarsan ("914") and has no decided advantages over the older
preparation except on the score of convenience. Both salvarsan and
neosalvarsan are yellow powders, which must be manufactured under the
most exacting precautions, to prevent their being intensely poisonous,
and must be sealed up in glass tubes to prevent their spoiling in the
air. They were formerly administered by dissolving them or by mixing
with oil and then injecting them into the muscles, much as mercury is
given by injection. At the present time, however, the majority of
experts prefer to dissolve the drug in water or salt solution and to
inject it into the blood directly, through one of the arm veins. There
is very little discomfort in the method, as a rule--no more than there
is to the taking of blood for a blood test. At the present time the
quantity of the drug injected is relatively small for the first