Recent advances made in the study of the functional activity of the liver, by means of various tests, have stimulated the interest of the entire medical profession. Of particular note, perhaps, has been the use of dyes which are eliminated solely by the liver through the bile passages. The dyes used for this purpose include phenoltetrachlorphthalein, rose bengal, bromsulphalein, indigo carmine, methylene blue, congo red and others. Of this number, phenoltetrachlorphthalein and rose bengal have been more thoroughly investigated and have lent themselves to clinical use.
It is but natural that the syphilologist should be among the first to determine the efficiency of these tests because of the frequency of hepatic complications seen in the syphilitic clinic. Rosenthal1 reports that cases of jaundice were eight and eight-tenths more frequent in the syphilitic clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital than in the medical clinic during the same period. In this work