[Syphillis. An up-to-date physio-biological view of the main topics. II- The evolutive process of experimental syphilitic infection and a comparison with clinical symptoms in man (author's transl)].

For lack of being able to grow Treponema pallidum, the only possibility that we have to study its biological behavior is to have recourse to experimentation upon animals. The stade comprising primary and secondary syphilis is characterized by visible "warning signals" which are not serious for the patient himself. But all their importance lies in the fact that they reveal the dissemination of T. pallidum inside the whole body. Thus, the healing alone or the disappearance of the lesion does not necessarily mean that it is cured. As a matter of fact, after that phase, infection may proceed "á bas bruit", as a chronic affection, which will come to light later, 10 to 15 years or more after the primary stage, as a visceral phase involving mainly cardiovascular or central nervous system. Those impairments cannot then be cured. Now, during that long period of latency, we are totally without any absolute criterion of "bacteriological sterilization", for we do not know precisely the physio-pathological meaning of these numerous serological reactions which are at out disposal and subsequently we are obliged to interpret them through divergent opinions because these techniques are not established on scientific method but are based upon empiric knowledges.