104 SPIROCHETOSIS OK StnANFSF; FOWLS 



noif^hbourhooil of the dischaitjiiig spirochieti- ii i> uliin \ii\ diflicult to sun il a yruiiiilf, 

 suddenly appeiii-ing, has actually just been ejected from tlie parasite, the more so as 

 the latter tends to lash and shake itself out of focus. 



After the process lias yone on for some time the wiiole spirochitte appears shorter and 



broader, more rihbon-like in fact, and this would appear to be due to a process of flattening 



owing to loss of its central substance. It should be noted that under the conditions 



' hans" i" mentioned the red cells are fragile and will often be found undergoing curious changes 



the red cclli . , ^, ^, ,-t, tiih -i.i 



givmg rise to what 1 have termed the chain, droplet, dumb-bell and filament phenomenon 

 (iKiijc 115 and Fig. 30) first described by Nuttall and Graham-Smith. The curious slender 

 motile tilanients might easily bo mistaken by the inexperienced for altered spirochistes 

 though the droplets or rings into which they disintegrate, owing to their low refractilc 

 indices, could scarcely be taken for the infective granules. It is highly probable that these 

 granules are derived from the chromatic core as, after their discharge, nothing but a sheath 

 which stains but faintly with Romanowsky remains unless, indeed, the shedding has not 

 been quite complete when granules are still to be seen inside the sheath (Plate IV., tig. 3). 

 At the same time it is a remarkable fact that the free granules themselves do not appear 

 to take on this stain. Only on one occasion have I found them faintly indicated. They 

 might easily have been missed. They are, however, readily coloured by the Levaditi- 

 Yamamato method and then appear as black, homogeneous, spherical dots scattered in 

 great profusion throughout the smear. It is possible that these granules possess an 

 aflinity to those recently described by Dobell' in Cristispira veneris. As noted, the 

 granules on being set free are very active. They dance hither and thither and 

 sometimes appear to increase in size. Beyond this change I have been unable to 

 discover what happens to them. I have never seen them enter red cells in prepara- 

 tions of the kind mentioned and they appear eventually to die in these cover-glass 

 tiluis. At the same time they require further watching in cases where the crisis 

 occurs naUirally and in ichicli, be it noted, precisely the same phenomenon occurs although no 

 drug /(«»• been administered. 



So far I have not seen it in the peripheral blood, even in cases treated by "606," 

 but my observations have been limited and unsatisfactory.'' In the case of a chick which 

 had passed the crisis nalurally on the previous day and whose blood was free of spirochaetes 

 Do the but was beginning to exhibit bodies, I witnessed what appeared to be the entry of a 



fhe red cells? ^''^*'' g^'a^ule into a red cell. This was in a thin liver juice film examined by the dark- 

 field method and in which were many free granules and a few red cells containing 

 bodies. Certainly a bright granule invagiuated the cell envelope and apparently made its 

 way into the cytoplasm. It then became partly surrounded either by a portion of the 

 invaginated cell envelope or by a capsule of its own formation. As one was watching the 

 process with deep interest a sudden current in the film carried the corpuscle away nor could 

 it again be found. Major Ensor and Captain Fry, who were interested spectators of this 

 process, were both inclined to regard it as an entry of one of the granules into a red cell. 

 Certainly there can be no doubt as to the invagination, but it is evident that more 

 observations are required. (These have now been made on peripheral blood, liver, spleen 

 and lung juice and bone-marrow preparations, but as yet in vain.) 



'Dobell, C.C. (A])ril, 1911), "Ou i.'riMUpira veneris nov. sp., and theatfiniticsandClassilicatiouofSpirochuites." 

 Quarterly Journal Microscopical Science. 



• Since writing the aliove I have witnessed spirocbirtes shedding granules ejtaetl.r as described in a film of 

 blood from the heart of a very j'oung chick which had l)cen inoculated 3.3 hours previousl.v with blood from a 

 small chick just Ixifore the crisis, and which developed lx)th spirochsetes and bodies almost simultaneously after a 

 very short inculjation period Jless than 20 hours). 



