Precocious noduloulcerative cutaneous syphilis

A man had widespread, noduloulcerative syphilitic lesions that appeared, chronologically, during the "secondary" stage of syphilis. There were no systemic manifestations of the disease, except for possible periostitis. The darkfield examination and spinal fluid examinations were negative for syphilis. It is suggested that the term "malignant" syphilis should be discarded in favor of nonduloulcerative cutaneous syphilis.