102 SI'IHOCII/TITOSIS OF MllANKSK FOWLS 



lias, I lnlic\f, I'lfiiii'd u|) llic prolih'iii of this fowl spiroclia'tosis in a satisfactoi'v 

 manner. It will ho aijpari'iit that " 60(j " producus what may l)i' called an artilicial 

 crisis, and this jjave one an opportunity of discovering, more readily than one can 

 do under natural conditions, what happens to the spirochietes after the pei'ijiheral blood 

 Anificiiil has heen freed or nearly freed of them. For this purpose liver puncture was employed, 



'•'"'''* anil at a later date well-infected chicks which had i)een -^iven a dose of "60(5" and 



whose peripheial hlood no loii^'er harboured parasites or showed oidy very few of 

 them were chloroformed, and blood was ipiickly taken by means of asj)iration from 

 tin: liver, s])leeii and luu^'. If then a drop of liver juice be examined by the dark- 

 tit'ld method it will be found swarming' with spirochaites ami with highly refractile 

 granules. The source of tlic latter is soon apparent, for attention will be directed to 

 s])irochu?tes which are not moving in the usual way but are in a state of violent 

 cuntortioii or are, so t(.i speak, shaking themselves to and fro. Indeed 1 cannot give 

 a more apt comparison than by likening their movements to those ui dogs which have been 

 in water and are shaking themselves vigorously to dry their coats. The object of the 

 spirocha'tes, however, is to rid themselves of the ijright, spherical granules which can be 

 seen within tluiii and wliich may or niay not be aggregations of the so-called chromatin 

 core (Plate I\'., lig. 2j. These are forced along the periplastic sheath or cell membrane and 

 suddenlv discharged from one or other end of the parasite, so that they become free in the 

 medimii and dance hither and thither as tiny, solid, spherical, brilliantly white particles. 

 Granules In prt)cess of time the spirocluete loses its activity, becomes dillicult to see and eventually 



shed from the jj j .^ ^^ ^^ ^^j j^. j^ ^j^^ y^ ^^^^ lifeless sheath drifting aindessly in the fluid and liable 



to be caught up and swept away by some still vigorous parasite. Such a sheath may 

 still retain one or two of the granules which it lias been unable to discharge. As may 

 be imagined the process is most fascinating to watch and my observations have been 

 conlirmed bv Ca])tain Fry and Mr. Buchanan of these laboratories and by Major Knsor 

 and Captain ()l''airel, H..\..M.C'. I may also say that the lirst named had previously 

 seen a shedding-off of granules by trypanosomes in the periplieral blood of experimental 

 animals, a phenomenon which he is now studying 



Tlic> same phenomenon is to be witnessed in films from the spleen and lung and 



may yot be found to occur, under certain conditions, in the periplieral blood.' All 



the spirochietes seen do not exhibit this granule shedding. Some will be found dead 



and motionless, killed outright by the drug. Some look and move like ordinary 



parasites but it is probable that in the long run these start the convulsive movements 



and discharge granules, as if a him be examined after 24 hours it is customary to 



tiiid no living spiroeluetes, only a few "shadow" sheaths with or without a few bright 



granules in them. The spirochiEtes which exhibit these remarkable changes are easily 



distinguished by their peculiar movements. These are not continuous. Between the 



convulsive shakes the spirochajtes straighten themselves and lie motionless as if exhausted, 



then all of a sudden they are again thrown into violent contortions during which very 



often the granules can be seen shifting to and fro within the sheath. .\s a rule, 



Changes in the however, they are driven towards one end and then by means of a final flicker set free. 



spirot .xtei ^^ ^ rule, after expulsion of a granule, quiescence occurs, but this is not always the 



shedding of case. Observation has to be both close and unremitting, as even in a very thin and small 



granules ^[1^1 numerous free granules are usually already present and if these are in the 



'Is it jxissiblu that the i;oecoid bodies described iu the blood of rclnpsiuK fever f«scs arc, iti reality, these 

 spirochetal xrouules ? I have now foiiud that the granule shcddiug does occur in the peripheral blood uuder 

 certain conditions. 



