INTRODUCTION AND NOMENCLATURE
It is well known that the clinicomorphologic as well as the loimologic pattern of syphilis, like that of any other disease, may be considerably influenced by certain racial, climatic and nutritional conditions. Thus, some peculiar features of syphilis among the Arabs in the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf have recently produced a somewhat prolific literature on syphilis under a number of local names.In central Palestine the term firjal (sometimes translated from the phonetic Arabian language into English and written firgal) is used by the people to denote a rash, a sore, an ulcer or a lesion of the throat, either alone or combined. In the coastal region of Jaffa, Syria, the term latta is commonly applied to any infection, but especially to any sore on the penis or genitalia. A similar-sounding word, laghout, is in use in the North, in the Lebanon,