Abstract
The blood and tissues of rabbits inoculated with Treponema pallidum have been studied from the standpoint of the cellular reaction at different periods of the disease. The evidence from successive weekly blood counts on 5 groups of rabbits, 40 animals in all, indicated that the various classes of cells were numerically affected. A striking finding was the increase in the numbers of circulating monocytes 1 associated with actively developing lesions. The increase was very much more pronounced than the spontaneous rises of monocytes noted in groups of normal rabbits, the blood of which was examined at similar intervals over prolonged periods of time. 2
Similar experiments have been carried out in which various tissues involved by the disease process were examined, both in supravital and in fixed preparations, in order to study the relationship between the blood picture and the types of cells concerned in the tissue reaction. Supplementary observations were also made on a large number of syphilitic rabbits in which the blood was not examined systematically; every instance of tissue examination, however, was immediately preceded by a blood count. Standardized pipettes were used and the differential counts were made with the supravital technique. Scrapings of fresh tissue were examined by the supravital method, using neutral red and Janus green dyes, and fixed preparations of the tissues were made with various fixatives and stains. In all experiments, special attention was paid to the clinical character of the disease. The particular lesions studied and the time selected for their examination was largely determined by the general course of the infection, and it should be emphasized that an essential feature of the study was the examination of lesions at different stages of development.
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