GENERAL CHARACTERS OF SPIROCILETES. 6 1 



the blood before phagocytosis occurs (in the goose), 

 while Levaditi and Lange find exactly the reverse, the 

 spirochastes disappearing before the formation of anti- 

 bodies ("immobilisines") in the rabbit. Infection is 

 conveyed by the bites of ticks (Argas miniatus, A. 

 reflexus. A. persicus, Ornithodorus moubata, not by 

 Dermanyssus avium). Atoxyl, a drug containing ar- 

 senic which is found useful in the treatment of trypano- 

 somiasis, is also valuable in fowl spirochaetosis, being 

 both preventive and curative. Salvarsan ("606") is 

 also very efficacious. 



A disease of cattle characterised by fever and diarrhoea 

 with enlargement of the spleen was described by Thei- 

 ler. Crises and subsequent relapses may occur. Infec- 

 tion is conveyed by the bite of the tick Rhipicephalus 

 decoloratus, and it would seem that some develop- 

 mental stage may occur in this host, as direct injec- 

 tion of the blood of an infected animal into a healthy 

 one does not result in infection. 



Spirochaetes were also found by Theiler in sheep and 

 horses suffering from fever; he believes that these may 

 have been the same organism as was found in the cattle. 

 Baruchello and Pricolo found Spirochaetes in cases of 

 infective pleuropneumonia in horses, the organisms 

 being present in the spleen, in the pulmonary alveoli, 

 in the pleural effusion, and in the blood. Martin also 

 found Spirochaetes in a sick horse, which, however, re- 

 covered, and Stordy in a horse which died with symp- 

 toms of wasting and oedema; with these organisms the 

 latter failed to infect a dog. 



A disease due to a spirochaete (Sp. vesperuginis) was 

 described in the bat, Vesperugo kuhlii, by Nicolle and 

 Compte. Enlargement of the spleen was found in a 



