454 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Spirillosis in Fowls.* — C. Levaditi, in an important paper, gives 

 the results of a research on this subject. If blood containing spirilla 

 is injected subcutaneously into a fowl, spirilla are not found in the circu- 

 lation until after the second day. If the site of inoculation be examined 

 microscopically, the vibrios will be found numerous and active 85 min. 

 after injection, much diminished in number after the second hour, and 

 rare after the ninth, with their mobility much impaired ; none are to be 

 found the next day. There is no sign of local phagocytosis. The 

 spirilla have left the place where they were introduced, and have gone 

 to certain internal organs, e.g. the spleen and the liver, where they 

 vapidly multiply. This the author has demonstrated experimentally. 

 These events are accompanied by histological changes in the blood, 

 leucocytosis, mono- and polymorpho-nuclear, and basophilia of the red 

 blood-corpuscles. There is also the appearance of large non-granular 

 mononuclear cells, probably of splenic origin, as well as vacuolisation of 

 all the leucocytes, which becomes more marked as the crisis approaches. 

 In blood obtained at this time there is observable a pseudo-agglutination 

 of the vibrios. 



From the second day onward the spirilla increase in the blood till the 

 fifth or sixth, when in the course of a few hours they suddenly disappear. 

 Of the two theories to explain this disappearance, extra-cellular dissolu- 

 tion and phagocytosis, the author inclines to the latter— from the fact 

 that the vibrios preserve their motility and power of division up to the 

 end, and do not exhibit granular or moniliform changes, and also that at 

 the crisis the large cells of the spleen and bone-marrow become vacuo- 

 lated and contain spirilla. Serum obtained a few days after the crisis 

 possesses marked immobilising and agglutinating properties. It contains 

 a thermolabile cytase and a thermostabile sensibilisatrice. It is probable 

 that the assimilating power of the leucocytes increases in the course of 

 spirillic infection, and that at the moment of the crisis the vibrios are 

 absorbed as soon as they are englobed by the leucocytes. It is possible 

 also that the sensibilisation plays a certain role in the rapid destruction 

 of the spirilla in the interior of the macrophages. The presence in the 

 fluids of the infected organism of a quantity of amboceptors insufficient 

 to provoke extra-cellular dissolution of the vibrios, may facilitate their 

 intra-protoplasmic digestion. 



If serum from a fowl which has recovered be injected into a fowl in 

 (he third or fourth day of the disease, it usually causes death, by pro- 

 ducing agglutination of the spirilla in the blood. The clumps so formed 

 are surrounded by vacuolated leucocytes, and are carried as emboli to the 

 lungs and nervous system. 



Plasma prepared after the method of Delezenne was found to have 

 an intense agglutinating and immobilising power, even on vibrios 

 actively motile in the circulation of the fowl supplying the blood for the 

 plasma. 



Growth of Bacteria in Salt Solutions of High Concentration.! — 

 F. Lewandowsky finds that the most concentrated solution of sodium 



* Ann. Inst. Past., xviii. (1904) pp. 129-49. 



+ Arch. Hygiene, xlix. (1904) pp. 47-01. See also Jonrn. Chem. Soc.,ccccxcviii- 

 F-!276. 



