Medicine: Cure

Doctors usually like to wait ten years before declaring a case of syphilis cured. But last week the medical team which first used penicillin in human syphilis announced that the first four patients treated had been re-examined and, after six years, could be pronounced cured.

Detective methods had to be used to keep track of the four patients, all seamen. The detecting work was done by Dr. John F. Mahoney, who retired last week as medical director of the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory, U.S. Marine Hospital, Staten Island, N.Y., Dr. Richard C. Arnold, his successor, and Serologist Ad Harris. For the first...

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