From 1917 through the mid-1940s, tertiary syphilis was treated by intentionally infecting the patient with malaria. The malaria would provoke a sustained high fever which essentially cooked the syphilis spirochete. The malaria would thereafter be treated with quinine. A 15% mortality rate and the introduction of new antibiotics against syphillis led to the abandonment of this regime.
The author of this procedure, Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg, received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1927 as a result. On a side note, he also believed that "excessive masturbation" was a symptom of schizophrenia, and he treated those who were so afflicted by sterilization.
Notwithstanding the fact that his wife was Jewish, the doctor became a devout Nazi.
Notwithstanding the fact that his wife was Jewish, the doctor became a devout Nazi.
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