298 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



the same size as the spirochete of syphilis, from which, how- 

 ever, it is easily distinguished by the beaded appearance of the 

 body and the hooked ends. In suitable preparations it is seen 

 to be actively motile. The motion is both that of rotation, 

 undulation and progression. It has been cultivated in test 

 tubes using the methods which Noguchi elaborated for the study 

 of the spirochete of syphilis, and from these cultures the disease 

 has been reproduced in animals, particularly in the guinea pig. 



The diagnosis of the disease was more successfully made by 

 demonstrating the presence of the spirochete. This was done 

 by injecting a few cubic centimeters of blood from a patient, 

 preferably the first four or five days of the disease, into the 

 peritoneal cavity of a guinea pig, where it multiplies rapidly 

 and its presence can be demonstrated. It is rarely present in 

 the blood of the human being in sufficient numbers to permit 

 of its demonstration without this enrichment in the guinea pig. 

 Later in the course of the disease, from the tenth to the fortieth 

 day, the organism can be found in the urine by direct examina- 

 tion of centrifuged specimens. This is analogous to what 

 occurs in the natural infection in the rat, as the organism has 

 been found in the urine of apparently healthy rats, both house 

 and field, in as high as 30 per cent, of those examined. This is 

 true in Japan, on the French front, and also in certain places 

 in America, where the rats have been examined. 



It is possible to produce the disease in guinea pigs by giving 

 them food contaminated with cultures of urine containing the 

 spirochetes, and presumably the epidemiology of the disease in 

 the human being is explainable in the same manner. 



Weil's disease, which occurs sporadically in all countries, has 

 been a mystery in the past, but thanks to the investigation^ of 

 the Japanese, which have been fully confirmed during the 

 World War, its epidemiology is now quite clear. 



ANTHRAX 



During 1918 there were 129 cases of anthrax reported among 

 all troops of the army, giving an admission rate of 0.05 per 



