SYPHILIZA'TION is the term used to designate an operation which has the double object of eradicating syphilis already existing in the system, and of securing permanent immunity from any future attacks, by means of repeated inoculations of syphilitic poison. As long ago as the year 1844, a French physician, Auzias Turenne, undertook a number of experiments, with the view of testing whether John Hunter's view, that syphilis could not be communicated to the lower animals, was correct. After some failures he succeeding in producing venereal sores (chancers) in monkeys by inoculating them with the human virus; and he found that rabbits, cats, and horses might be similarly infected from the chancers of the monkey. He likewise found that the chancers produced by inoculation became less and less in each animal, until a period at length arrived at which the poison seemed to have lost all its power, and no further sores could be produced; and he was thus led to believe that by prolonged inoculation the system became protected. The subject was next taken up by Sperino of Turin, who inoculated patients suffering from syphilis by virus from a chancer, and repeated the inoculation once or twice a week, till the poison—as in the case of Turenne's animals—ceased to produce any effect; and when this point was reached, all the other sores had healed. In 1851 prof. Boeck of Christiania, when traveling through Italy, had his attention drawn to the doctrine of syphilization; and from that time to the present, he has devoted himself unremittingly to it, and is now the great authority on the subject. In 1858 Boeck, in consequznce of the results he had attained from the practice of syphilization in cases where no mercurial treatment had been prescribed, alleged that syphilization might in such cases be regarded as a complete and certain cure. In cases where mereurialization has been practiced, the use of iodine has to be. persisted in during syphilization. During the summer of 1865 Dr. Boeck visited London, and took active steps to make his views on this subject accurately known in this country, and the surgeons of the Lock hospital submitted a Senes of cases to his mode of treat ment; and Mr. James Lane, one of the surgeons to that institution, asserted in 1866 that "hitherto, as far as he had seen, it had effected everything which had been promised for it The progress of the cases in the Lock hospital had in almost every detail corre sponded to the predictions of prof. Boeck respecting them. In several of those who had been longest under treatment, immunity from inoculation with primary syphilitic matter had been arrived at." The progress of syphilization as a remedy for syphilis and as a
proof against syphilitic infection, has not been well marked in this country. Most surgeons are agreed as to the correctness of prof. Boeck's views, but the practice itself is offensive, and the length of time necessary for its being effectively carried out forms an objection to its practice. In Sperino's experiments, the treatment extended from 9 to 20 months or more. The practice has been much in vogue in Christinia under Boeck and his colleague M. Bidenkap; but it is unlikely to command attention other than of scientific kind and as tending 'to acquaint us with the history of syphilis and with the nature of syphilitic infection.
SY'BA (anc. Sipes), the most important, though not the largest member of that group of islands in the lEgean sea known as the Cyclades (see GREECE), lies 13 m. s. of Andros. It is about 10 us. long by 5 broad, hare, hilly, and not very fertile. The products are wine, tobacco, grain, citrons, figs, honey, and vegetables; but the greater portion even of the common necessaries of life have to be imported from Greece and foreign countries. Its prosperity is of quite modern growth. Daring the war of independence, Syra remained neutral, and in consequence, numerous fugitives flocked thither from other parts of Greece, especially from Chios and Psara, who, besides adding largely to the population, brought with them a spirit of political activity and commercial enterprise, the beneficial effects of which are now strikingly visible. Pop. 30,643. The capital, Syra or Ilerinopolis, is situated on a bay on the c. side of the island. It rises terrace-wise from the shore, is well built, and is the seat of government for the Cyclades, and the residence of foreign consuls. It has numerous educational institutions, 4 printing presses, and 3 weekly newspapers. Syra has become the great commercial entrepot of the ./Egean. Nearly one-half of all the imports of Greece reach it through this port. It builds more ships than any other town in the Levant, and owns one-third of all the Greek merchantmen. It has likewise regular steam communication with all the principle trading-towns in the Levant: Pop. of the town of Syra, '71, 20,996.
A ncient notices of Syra are scanty. Homer praises it in the Odyssey as " rich in pastures, in herds, in wine, in wheat;" but it has no history.