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Dr. Janet Travell:
The drugs with specific curative effects in syphilis are the compounds of arsenic, bismuth and mercury. Some of the questions relating to their use, on which syphilologists do not all agree at present, are: Which metal to use at any given stage of the disease? What preparation of the metal to select? How much of it to give? By what route? What plan of treatment to follow, whether continuous or interrupted or combined, and so on? And if toxic reactions or resistance to therapy develops, what other course to follow? If no reactions develop, when to stop treatment?What are the objectives of antisyphilitic therapy? This is one instance in which therapy is aimed directly at the cause of the disease. So the goal is the complete cure of the disease. Treatment should accomplish a rapid disappearance of the spirochete from the mucocutaneous lesions in order to
CONFERENCES ON THERAPYEVALUATION OF DRUGS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS. JAMA. 1939;112(23):2415. doi:10.1001/jama.1939.62800230006013