32 C. CLIFFORD DOBELL. 
very active, and but feebly refractive. Its length varies 
from ca. 5—12 , whilst its breadth is exceedingly hard to 
gauge. From measurements of stained preparations, I judge 
it to be approximately 0°2u. The protist is flexible and 
spirally twisted, the distance between the turns of the spiral 
being about 2. Some thicker forms are occasionally to be 
seen (fig. 23a), and others of an extraordinary slenderness 
(fig. 23b). In others (23c) the ends appear to taper into an 
exceedingly delicate filament, possibly a flagellum. 
I have stained this organism with Heidenhain’s iron- 
hematoxylin, and also with Giemsa. With the latter it 
stains a pale pink. 
This protist bears a remarkable hkeness to Treponema 
pallidum, Schaud., first described by Schaudinn, and 
since observed by many other workers, in syphilitic lesions. 
Whether these two forms are really related or not can only 
be decided by a knowledge of their life-histories. And un- 
fortunately, despite the work of Krzysztalowicz and Siedlecki, 
and of many others, there is but little of the life-history of 
Schaudinn’s organism known with certainty. I think it 
therefore premature to name this parasite from the toad. 
Of its life-history I know nothing. Some of the longer 
forms show a thin place towards the middle, which might be 
due to division—either transverse or possibly the end of 
longitudinal. Hven in the spirochets—e.g. in 8. bal- 
bianii—the method of division is disputed. For, although 
Perrin is assured that it is longitudinal, Swellengrebel 
believes it to be transverse, and regards longitudinal division 
as unproved. The appearances figured in T. pallidum by 
Schaudinn and many others certainly suggest that in this 
organism at least a longitudinal splitting is the rule. 
I have purposely avoided discussing whether the spiro- 
cheets, etc., are Protozoa or Bacteria. For it seems to me 
fruitless to discuss the matter in our present state of igno- 
rance. Indeed, those very characters which are taken by 
Schaudinn, Hoffmann and Prowazek and others to indicate 
their Protozoan affinities, are said by Swellengrebel to show 
