Answer Dear Jim Thanks for your unusual question. I have looked up several books and websites, but information is limited and, generally speaking, unhelpful. http://weeklywire.com/ww/02-02-98/austin_cols_smartypants.html says that you can contract syphilis from camel spit. I am not too sure how serious this website is. I get several items of trivia’ a day by e-mail, but several of these amazing facts’ are misleading and some are incorrect. Unfortunately, the same is true of information in several books, magazines and television programmes. http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/stdsyph.htm and http://www.cdc.gov/std/Syphilis/STDFact-Syphilis.htm#spread say the syphilis bacterium is very fragile, and the infection is almost always transmitted by sexual contact with an infected person. The bacterium spreads from the initial ulcer (sore) of an infected person to the skin or mucous membranes (linings) of the genital area, mouth, or anus of an uninfected sexual partner. It also can pass throug