52 
SPIKOCH^TORIS OF Hl’IlANESE FOWLS 
bodies in the blood. It again became sick and drowsy, and harboured these bodies 
for a month. They gradually lessened in numbers, however, and eventually entirely 
disappeared, the bird recovering completely. Naturally, perhaps, I regarded this as proof 
that fowl No. 1 had been infecced from fowl No. 2, and that the ticks had transmitted the 
disease. The result of this experiment coloured my views of the condition for a long time, 
and it never occurred to me that in fowl No. 2 1 was working with a bird which was 
already in the same condition as that into which fowl No. 1 fell, i.e. a bird which had 
previously suffered from spirochaetosis and had passed into what I now term the “ after phase ” 
of that condition. Doubtless had I stained the blood of fowl No. 1 for a sufficient time 
I would have found a few spirochtetes in it, and I might have witnessed them co-existing 
with the bodies. Possibly I did not examine the fresh blood with sufficient frequency, and 
altogether this case points a useful lesson in blood w'ork in the Tropics, and reveals its 
pitfalls and the danger of drawing any conclusion from a single experiment, however definite 
its results may appear. 
The following observations were those which led me to what I believe is a correct 
conclusion, and which coincides with Dr. Samhon’s opinion ; — 
1. I noticed that fowls which recovered from spirochaetosis, very often after the lapse of 
a few days, exhibited these bodies in their bloods. 
2. I found that the spirochaetes either did not wholly disappear from the perijiheral blood 
at the crisis or, if they did so, that they reappeared, and synchronously with their 
reappearance that these bodies showed tbemselves in the corpuscles. 
3. It was noticeable that no fowl with these Ijodies in its hlond could he inoculated with 
spirochaetosis. 
4. The ilisease associated with the presence of these l)odieS in the blood presented 
symptoms closely-resembling those of spirochaetosis, and which might (ptite well he due 
to a suh-acute or chronic form of the disease. 
5. There were no characteristic post mortem appearances. 
G. The general l)lood condition closely resemhled that found in spirochaetosis. 
7. The morphology and staining reactions of the bodies could perfectly well be explained on 
the hypothesis that they were spirooha5tes which had entered the corpuscles, had coiled 
up in them or l)ecome encysted in them, had broken down or contracted, and eventually 
had hecome broken up into granules. The gap sometimes seen in the corpuscular 
envelope could also be explained on this basis. 
8. The morphology and staining reactions could not be satisfactorily explained on any other 
hypothesis. The bodies did not exactly resemble piroplasmata, were unlikely to be a 
new form of ha3matozoon, did not seem to be of a bacterial nature as evidenced by 
examination of the fresh blood, were certainly not due to degeneration or vacuolation, 
and bore no resemblance to Cropper’s bodies. 
9. It was found that von Prowazek had descril)ed a somewhat similar condition resulting 
from the invasion of the red corpuscles of fowls l)y Sp. gallinarum, while during the 
course of the investigation Breinl * described an endoglobular stage of Sp. duttoni 
in the rat, and Lingard recorded the fact that he had seen spirochaetes enter 
erythrocytes, 
10. Eeeently I discovered in geese a condition precisely similar to that obtaining in fowls — 
i.e. a spirochaetosis followed by the appearance of the intra-corpuscular bodies, the 
symptoms of the associated disease closely simulating those seen in fowls {vide infra). 
' Breinl, A. (November ‘Jth, 1907), “ On the Morphology and Life-History of Spirocluvta duttoni.” Annals 
of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Series T.M., Vol. I., No. 3. 
