we do not
understand how anything so innocent in appearance, can occasion such
terrible ravages. In the course of the evolution of life how came it
into being? We can only surmise. But once having gained a foothold in
the body of a human being, the minute organism begins to multiply: and
penetrating to any part of the body, it induces the ravages of a
destroyer espite all the opposing defences which Nature may raise
against it. The discoverer first called it the "Spirochaete
pallidum," but later invented a new name--"Treponema pallidum"--by
which it is at present generally known. It is almost ceratin that in
this minute organism, invisible to the naked eye, we have the
causative agent of one of the great destroyers of the human race.

A Japanese physician, connected with various phases of research work
in the Rockefeller Institute (Dr. Hideyo Noguchi), believed it would
be possible to device a method for detecting the existence of these
germs of syphilis in certain latent and obscure cases, where the
disease was merely suspected. He had no though of inventing a cure
for the disease; it was a method of detection only. By ingenious
procedures which it is unnecessary here to describe, Dr. Noguchi
succeeded in cultivating these germs OUTSIDE THE HUMAN BODY; and after
grinding them in a sterile mortar, and subjecting them to heat with
other manipulations, he found himself finally in possession of an
extract or emulsion to which he gave the name of "luetin." It contains
the germs of syphilis; but they are intended to be DEAD GERMS. The
experimenter himself says:

"I have proposed the name LUETIN for an emulsion or extract of pure
culture of Treponema pallidum, which is designed to be employed for
obtaining in suitable cases, a specific cutaneous reaction that may
become a valuable diagnostic sign in certain stages or forms of
syphilitic infection."

Now, if a drop of this luetin be introduced beneath the skin of a
child who has inherited the disease, or of a person who has suffered
from its obscurer symptoms, there may be produced a "reaction." This
may take the form of "a large, indurated, reddish papule" which in a
pew days become of a dark, bluish-red colour; or the inflammation may
be of a severer type, resulting in a "pustule." A positive result is
more frequently obtained when the disease is of long standing, or
comparatively inactive. But may not this "reaction" occur in every
case, whether or not the indi