Abstract
1. That syphilis of the liver occurs in a small
proportion of cases of syphilis and may develop
at any time from the early secondary stage of the
disease.
2. That there are various types of liver involvement
giving different pathological pictures and
demanding different lines of treatment.
3. That syphilis of the liver can give rise to
symptoms suggesting almost every other condition
of the liver and gall- bladder and
4. That the only definite diagnostic test in Hepatic
Syphilis is the Therapeutic test but other aids
to diagnosis are:
a) The finding of a strongly pesitive Wassermann
indicating that the patient is suffering fro
syphilis. A negative Wassermann Reaction
does not mean that the patient has not
syphilis¡
b) The history of the patient having been
infected with syphilis at some earlier date;
c) The finding of a healed scar of the primary
sore or in the earlier cases the primary sore
still present, or the presence of a secondary
rash;
d) Evidence of syphilis of some other region of
the body such as the central nervous system
or cardio- vascular system.
5. That practically all cases are improved by being
given the appropriate treatment indicated in the
first part of the thesis, and that the early
benign type is apparently cured.
6. That liver efficiency tests only indicate the
amount of damage to the organ and do not help in
differentiating between syphilis and other
pathological conditions of the liver.
From the diversity of symptoms given and the
variability of the signs elicited in syphilis of the
liver, this condition should be excluded in all
pathological processes in the liver.
As the liver is affected in such a definite
number of cases, involvement of the liver should be
looked for carefully in every patient suffering from
syphilis. The finding of it early would, if properly
treated save a lot of ill-health occurring in
syphilitic patients in later years.
