| Date | 1859 |
| Author | Auzias-Turenne |
| Contribution | With Gilbert, infected patients by inoculating them with pus from secondary syphilis. |
| Reference | Dracobly |
| Notes | Joseph Alexandre Auzias and Camille Gilbert. The inoculations took place in a Paris hospital in 1859, and elicited vehement condemnation in the medical press. Four patients with chronic lupus were injected with pus taken from a mucous anal lesion on a patient with secondary syphilis. All four developed syphilis. The inoculations were given a veneer of therapeutic justification, but were primarily intended to prove the contagious (infectious) nature of secondary syphilis. The authors therefore regarded them as a clear success. All of this preceded the discovery of the infectious agent of syphilis, and preceded any clear distinction between the various forms of 'venereal disease'. The episode is discussed in detail in Dracobly, A., Bull. Hist. Med. 77:332-366, 2003. |
| Category | Causation |
| Pathogen Class | Bacteria |
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