Our chief purpose in beginning our investigation was to discover a quick and reliable method, which could be employed by any one familiar with microscopic work, to demonstrate Spirochaeta pallida in the transudate of a chancre as easily as the tubercle bacillus is demonstrated in the sputum.
Nowadays, as we gain a better knowledge of the invasion of the tissues by the spirochete, when a patient with a so-called second syphilitic incubation is considered to have a possible case of the dreaded nervous involvement, it is convenient for the specialist to have a simple, reliable method to diagnose and to differentiate the chancre. With this in mind we searched for a staining method which should fill these requirements.
Our advocacy of this method does not mean that we consider it superior to the dark-field method, since both methods have their own advantages, but not all laboratories are equipped for dark-field