THE PURPOSE of this preliminary report is to show the effect of topically applied cortisone in two cases of congenital syphilitic interstitial keratitis. Most syphilologists and ophthalmologists agree that the present therapeutic approach to the treatment of this baffling ocular manifestation of congenital syphilis leaves much to be desired. Penicillin has proved its worth in the treatment of congenital syphilis; in the treatment of syphilitic keratitis, however, penicillin, either alone or combined with artificial fever, frequently fails to bring about rapid and certain resolution of the inflammatory process.
The most recent statistics available show that in the continental United States during 1950 there were 13,646 cases of congenital syphilis reported to the Division of Venereal Disease of the United States Public Health Service.1 Stokes reviewed 164 cases brought to medical attention because of heredosyphilis; of these 52% had or had had interstitial keratitis, 26% had other types of ocular