40 
SPIUOCH.ETOSIS OP" SUDANESE FOWLS 
Hereditary 
transmission 
'I'he disease 
in India 
the young chicken, though, according to Cantacuzene,' the fowl rarely succumbs. The 
disease induced is very like that caused l)y Sj). (jallinarum. Yellow caseous granulations 
are found in the liver post mortem. 
4. Borrel- was the first to demonstrate by a special and somewhat intricate process the 
apparent presence of peritrichous flagella in Sji. gallinarmn. I think the present tendency is to 
regard the appearance as of the nature of an artefact. 
5. Luvaditi and Manouelian-* further investigated the subject, and concluded that — 
(i.) Brazilian septicmmia is not exclusively due to a proliferation of Sp. (jallinarum 
in the blood. The parasite invades the various glandular tissues, and enters into 
intimate contact with the divers cellular elements. Unlike Treponema pallidum, 
however, it does not seem to penetrate into the protoidasm of the cells. 
(ii.) The crisis is due to phagocytosis by the macrophages of the spleen and liver, 
(iii.) The parasite can infect the egg of the bird inoculated experimentally. 
(). At a later date, Levaditi^ entered into the question of the disease in the embryo of 
the fowl. One need not follow him into this field, but merely note his conclusions that — 
(i.) Spirillosis is not hereditarily transmissible to embryos horn of infected fowls. 
This is possibly because infected eggs may not be capable of fecundation and segmenta¬ 
tion, or because the spirilla which have invaded them may die off during the long process 
of the “ birth ” of the egg. 
(ii.) These embryos are immunised against infection by Sp. (jallinartim, this immunity 
being prol)ably of a passive nature. 
It is in this paper also that he explains the death of adult fowls which have survived 
the crisis as due to the action of a toxin liberated from the spirilla after their death in the 
protopla.sm of the phagocyte. 
7. So far as I can find out, spirillosis occurring naturally in poultry was not described, 
save in Brazil, until I’ encountered it in Khartoum fowls towards tlie close of 1906.'' This 
is the disease forming the subject of the following paper. {See page. 44.) 
8. Eeaney,' having noted this discovery, looked for and found the disease in fowls at Agar, 
in India, and, in the course of his second paper, mentions that Bannerman had found a spirillum 
in a chikor ])artridge in the Bombay Zoological Gardens. He thinks the tangles of spirilla 
may be the result of rapid division. 
9. Montgomery,'* also in India, was the next observer. Apparently he had not 
noticed the Sudan \vork or Eeaney’s papei’, for, after mentioning Marchoux and Salimbeni’s 
discovery, he says: “ Its occurrence in other parts of the world has not since been 
noted ” : but, in the course of his own, he mentions that Pease had observed a disease 
in ducks at Lahore, which he attributed to spiroch®tes observed in the blood. 
Montgomery describes the parasites as being, as a rule, from 7 to 9 in length, and 
' Cantacuz^’ne, .J. ( 1899). Ann. deVInstitut Pasteur. 
- Borrel, A. (.January 20th, 1900), “ Oils et division transversale chez le spirille de la poule.” C. P. de la 
Soc. de Biol. 
Levaditi, (J. Y., and Manouelian (November 25tli, 1900), “La spirillose des einbryons de poulet.” Ann. de 
VInstitut Pasteur. 
* Levaditi, G. Y’. (November 25th, 1900), “La spirillose des embryons de poulet.” Ann. de VInstitut 
Pasteur, Y'ol. XX. 
^Balfour, A. (March 30th, 1907), “A Spirillosis, etc., of Domestic Fowls in the.Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.” 
British Medical Journal, p. 744, Y'ol. 1. 
“ Nuttall, however, in his Harben Lectures for 1908, states that Bitter informed him that spii'oehcetosis occurs 
in fowls round about Cairo, and that the condition has also been reported from Australia. 
■ Eeaney, M. F. (May 11th, 1907), “Spirillosis of Domestic Fowls.” British Medical Journal, Vol. I. Ibid. 
(November, 1907), ibid. Indian Medical Gazette. 
' Montgomery, E. E. (February, 1908), “On a Spirooha'te occurring in the Blood of Chickens in India.” 
Journal of Tropical Veterinary ,Science, Vol. III., Pt. I. 
