Possible applications of adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and cortisone in syphilis.

Pituitary adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and cortisone have already become established as important therapeutic agents in many diseases, and an enormous literature has accumulated since their effect in rheumatoid arthritis was announced by Hench and others (1949). After an initial wave of uncritical enthusiasm, the applications and limitations of these hormones are now being realized, but there are still many gaps in the understanding of their mode of action, both in the normal subject and in disease states. It is natural that ACTH and cortisone should have been tried in a large number of diseases, and surprising that so far there has been no paper published on their application in human syphilis apart from its ocular manifestations, and only two paperst on their effect in experimental animal syphilis. It may be, of course, that syphilologists in America, who have presumably had access to liberal supplies of the hormones, have been more hesitant than some of their colleagues to use them without substantial justification; or perhaps their confidence in penicillin (which appears to be greater than ours in Great Britain) leads them to believe that there is no need for improvement in the treatment of syphilis. However, as has been stressed on many occasions,