Since Jacobs and Heidleberger produced tryparsamide and since its introduction into neurosyphilitic therapy, there have been numerous reports in the literature concerning the transitory changes in the eye observed during treatment with this drug. Few of these reports are based on an experimental histopathologic study, and it was thought worth while to make such a study coincident with a report of a case of blindness that was supposed to have been the result of treatment with tryparsamide. As a further step, a series of 32 cases of syphilis of the central nervous system in which this drug was used were observed and are herein reported.
In 1919, Brown and Pearce1 were first to report on experimental clinical work with tryparsamide on lower animals. They did not find any pathologic changes in the eyes, but did observe transitory changes. Young and Loevenhart,2 in 1924, made an experimental study which