Salvarsan—606.
Until very recent days mercury was our only anchor sheet in the fight against Syphilis, but in 1910 the great German scientist, Professor Paul Ehrlich, discovered that a certain chemical combination of arsenic, called by him Salvarsan, has a wonderful germicide effect on Spirocheta of Syphilis. Salvarsan is known also as 606, and its latest modification, Neo Salvarsan, is known as No. 914, because Ehrlich had to re-examine 605 different combinations of arsenic before he has developed and adopted 606, and he had to re-examine 913 combinations before he has adopted No. 914. At the time of its discovery the greatest enthusiasm prevailed, and it was claimed and expected by many that one injection of Salvarsan would be able to kill all the spirochetae in the body, and thus bring about a complete cure of Syphilis. Unfortunately, subsequent experience has shown that these expectations were unfounded. Salvarsan is a great remedy and one injection of it may heal up very rapidly most destructive syphilitic lesions, but neither one injection nor two nor three can with certainty produce a perfect and absolute cure of Syphilis.