Studies in Experimental Syphilis

Abstract

Previous communications in this series have dealt with the results of experiments in which both treated and untreated syphilitic rabbits were inoculated a second time with homologous strains of Treponema pallidum. The results of those experiments are in close accord with the findings of other investigators in the same field, ~ and the evidence thus far assembled, both by others and by ourselves, indicates that in rabbits during the course of an experimental infection with syphilis there is built up in time a specific state of resistance against the infecting organism to the extent that subsequent inoculations with homolo-

Empire, Exploration and ‘Failure’: The Euphrates Expedition and the Route to India that Never Was

“…109 Chesney had considered this in the expedition planning, noting in 1833 that 'the fountains of bitumen seem to offer a still better, cheaper, and much more portable supply … than that of wood and charcoal; or, the resource of importing coals from England and India at a great expense.' 110 The use of bitumen as a fuel for steamships was nevertheless still an almost entirely unknown quantity. As Ainsworth explained, testing was required and 'not being found to answer by itself' bitumen 'was mixed with stones, earth, and dry dung, the ordinary fuel of the Arabs.'…”

“…115 He continued to note that 'the cost of wood is chiefly the labor of cutting it' with 'merely a small sum being paid for permission to cut or make it into charcoal.' 116 However, as well as spelling out multiple layers of dependency, this proved somewhat more difficult in practice (as with many of Chesney's perennially optimistic predictions) and on one occasion they 'were disappointed in the hope' of finding prepared wood, and thus had 'to submit to the disadvantage of burning green wood which produced but ½ or at most itself by pillaging timber near Al-Khodar, which they afterwards discovered was believed 'one of the resting places of the prophet Elias.' 118 Chesney explained that a tense skirmish followed (in which the Expedition killed three Arabs with cannister shot), 'aroused by our having (in ignorance of their superstitions) cut down a part of the wood, which, owing to their Persian descent they regarded as sacred.'…”