390 SPIRILLA, PATHOGENIC VIBRIONKS, SPIROCHETE 



blood of infected birds into healthy ones. Young birds generally die 

 after an artificial infection. An immune serum may also be prepared 

 by repeated injections of blood containing spirilla into a horse. 



Spirochete in Mammals. Organisms of this type have been found by 

 Theiler in the Transvaal in the blood of cattle simultaneously infected 

 with Piroplasmata and Trypanosomata. The spirilla seen were 

 slender and 20 to 30 micra long, and very similar to those described 

 in birds. Laveran named this organism Spirillum Theileri. It is not 

 known whether it is pathogenic or not. The observations of Theiler 

 on cattle have been confirmed by Ziemann in the Cameroon and by 

 Robert Koch in East Africa. These spirochete of cattle are transmitted 

 through the bite of the tick Rhipicephalus decoloratus, which may at 

 the same time transmit Texas fever, as shown by certain experiments 

 of Laveran and Vallee. Theiler also found spirochete in sheep in 

 the Transvaal, and he and other authors have a few times found the 

 organisms in horses. Spirochete have also been seen in rats in India, 

 and Nicolle and Comte found them in a common bat (Vespertilio 

 Kuhli) in Tunis. The latter spirilla are 12 to 18 micra long, not more 

 than one-quarter of a micron thick. They have pointed ends and 

 divide by binary division at right angles to the long axis. The infection 

 can be transmitted from sick to healthy animals. 



FIG. 160 



Spirocheta pallida, twisted and intertwined form, primary lesion of syphilis. Goldhorn's 

 stain. X 1000. (Author's preparation.) 



Are Spirochete Bacteria or Protozoa? Extensive studies on the 

 spirochete of relapsing and tick fevers and other organisms of this 

 group have led Novy and Knapp to agree with the conclusions 

 previously drawn by Carter, Norris, Martin, Borrel, R. Koch, and 

 others that spirochete are bacteria, i. e., vegetable microorganisms, 

 and not Protozoa, as Schaudin and other investigators have believed. 

 In the examination of living spirochete, Novy and Knapp failed to 

 observe the presence of an undulating membrane with a flagellum 



