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A PRELIMINARY report1 made on Nov. 12, 1949, based on a study of 27 persons with dark field-positive syphilis, concluded that aureomycin (1) causes an initial satisfactory decline in the serologic titer, (2) rids syphilis lesions of surface spirochetes in an average time of 39 hours and, administered orally in the high dosage schedule described, (3) causes a mild to moderate degree of gastrointestinal disturbance in almost 100 per cent of the patients.The present study is of 67 patients with dark field-positive syphilis, including those in the preliminary report. The disease of 62 patients was diagnosed as secondary, of 2 as seropositive primary and of 3 as seronegative primary syphilis. All patients were previously untreated for syphilis.The distribution of these patients by race, sex and age is indicated in table 1. The age range for the group was 17 to 43, with a median age of 24

Aureomycin, one of the newer antibiotics first described by Duggar,1 has been shown to be active against certain viruses and rickettsia,2 gram-positive and gram-negative micro-organisms,3 and to be even more effective than penicillin in experimental spirochetal infections, namely: relapsing fever (Borrelia novyi) and spirochetal jaundice, or Weil's disease (Leptospira icterohemorrhagiae).4 This last-mentioned observation by Heilman prompted O'Leary, Kierland and Herrell5 to investigate the effect of aureomycin on Treponema pallidum in man. It was concluded on the basis of a study in 2 patients with syphilis in an early stage that "aureomycin appears to have some anti-spirochetal activity when administered by the oral route."On March 1, 1949 a study was initiated at the Chicago Intensive Treatment Center concerning aureomycin and its effect in early infectious dark fieldpositive syphilis. Twenty-seven patients had been treated by May 5, 1949. All patients in the study had dark field-positive