Once a ravaging disease that rose to epidemic proportions, syphilis is effectively treated today with penicillin and other antibiotics. Because there is no known inoculation, accurate testing has become a key determinant of quick and successful treatment.

In 1903, Russian biologist Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916) and French scientist Pierre-Paul-Emile Roux demonstrated that syphilis could be transmitted to monkeys and, consequently, could be studied in the laboratory. Two years later, German zoologist Fritz Schaudinn and his assistant Erich Hoffmann isolated the bacterium that causes syphilis, a spiral-shaped spirochete called Treponema pallidum.

The first effective test for syphilis was developed in 1906 by German physician and bacteriologist August von Wassermann (1866-1925). Wassermann was influenced by the work of German researcher Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915), who established basic theories of blood immunity. Wassermann's test consisted of taking a blood sample from the patient, and testing it for the antibody to the syphilis bacterium...