sriEOCHJ-.TOSIS OF SUDANESE FOWLS 89 



May 10. Bodies as before but a few spirochaites arc now present, as well. Were these the result of the 

 second inoculation or is it a relapse? It is impossible to say definitely, l>ut in all probability this is a .i<ood 

 exami^le of statement (/. 



.\[n>i 11. Found dead, a fact which rather encourages the view just stated. In Ijcvaditi sections spirochsetes 

 were found in the hepatic sinuses. 



A chick which had developed spirochajtosis from having infected lice placed upon it, which had 

 recovered after a heavy infection and which had shown no spirochsetes in its peripheral lilood for eight 

 consecutive days received, on .lanuary 2.1. 1911, an injection of fowl's blood containing numerous parasites. 

 It showed no spirochsetes up to .lanuary 2ft. on the morning of which day it was found dead. No spirochsetes 

 were found in its heart's blood or oi-gans. 



A very sudden fall in the temperature of the laboratory during the night may have accnuntcd for death. 

 The case of the chick (cldc paijr 8G) which received an injection of filtrate from spirochaetal blood and yet 

 was subsequently successfully inoculated with spirochietosis, may be taken as another example of (/, but a 

 better instance is found in the case 



(e) Very young chicks obtained from the village or market may exhiliit a few intra- possibilitv of 

 corpuscular bodies. It is, of course, possible that they tnay have been infected in the ,raiismiSnn 

 usual way through the agency of ticks, and have passed, either directly or secondarily, 

 into the " after phase," but as there is often no sign of tick infestation upon them, as 

 thev usually appear in good health and fair condition, and as the infectiofi is, as a rule, 

 scanty, one is constrained to ask if they may not be examples of hereditary transmissions. 

 It has been shown that iS'p. iHarehou,n ((/allrnariim) can pass into the immature 

 ovum of the fowl, so that it is quite possible that chicks, even live chicks, may be hatched 

 exhibiting a spirochsetal infection of this form. It is worth noting that such chicks are 

 not immune, for, if bitten by infected ticks (A. pemicKt!) or inoculated with spirocheetal 

 blood, free spirochaetes appear in their peripheral blood or, as already fioted, after a 

 certain itioculation period, the niniiber of intra-corpuscular Ijodies in their blood undergoes 

 a fiiore or less marked increase. Examples of these statements have been given, but 

 I confess this question of bodies in very young chicks presents difficulties. Are the 

 appearances really the true inclusions, frotti which they seem to me to be indistinguishable, 

 or do they represent changes in the red cells of the chick or persistence of etnbryonal 

 conditions'? I endeavoured to solve the problem by breeding out chicks frotn what was, 

 presumably, a healthy stock of fowls, i.e. a stock bred on the pretnises atid never 

 infected. In the chicks of a cock and hen of this kind, however, I found corpuscular 

 inclusions, one of these birds beitig chick ihi whose case is recorded on page 88. It is 

 very difficult, with native attendants who are practically all either thieves or liars, or 

 both, to be sure things are carried out as desired, and with the pressure of work utider 

 which one usually labours, it is impossible to keep a close eye on matters of this kind, 

 so that I cannot lay too much stress on these observations which shoirld be repeated. 

 In this country it is hard to obtain fowls which one knows have never had spirochsetosis, 

 and I have not latterly been able to obtain foreign breeds which, moreover, are very 

 apt to die. 



It may be a mere coiticidetice but it seems to me worth recording that the above- 

 fuentioned healthy cock atid hen of our owti stock, wheti inoculated with infective tick 

 tissues, both showed spirochajtes in due course but tiever showed bodies, though 

 examined at intervals for a month and tnore. Both birds recovered completely after 

 passing throligh a transitory leuksemic condition. 



(/) The injection of blood containing, so far as is known, intra-corpuscular bodies 

 only into chicks may result in an infection of the peripheral blood with bodies only. 

 Such infection, after a titne, usually undergoes a great increase, resulting not uncotntnonly 

 in death, and post mortem spirochetes may be found in the organs. 



K.i-mnph. An excellent exatnple has already been given in the case of chick N {pacje 82) 

 and, curiously enough, a certain chick 0, inoculated with a liver emulsion from the bird 



