SPIROCH^ETA GALLINARUM 119 



and break up into coccoid bodies. In this manner the granules find 

 their way into the ovaries and ova, thus explaining how the young 

 ticks are born infected. Inoculation of these chromatinic granules 

 usually produces infection. Infective granules are also seen in the 

 rudiments of the Malpighian tubules of embryo ticks. Bosanquet 

 and Fantham (1911), independently, have shown that molluscan 

 spirochaetes also break up into similar granules or coccoid bodies. 

 Gross has also demonstrated multiple transverse fission in molluscan 

 forms. Marchoux and Couvy (1913) and Wolbach (1914) consider 

 the granules or coccoid bodies to be degeneration products. This is 

 unlikely (see below). 



Schuberg and Manteufel have found that certain 0. moubata, 

 perhaps 30 per cent, of the specimens of a given neighbourhood, may 

 acquire a natural active immunity against infection with S. duttoni. 



S. duttoni, or a closely allied form (by some termed S. novyi), occurs 

 in Colombia, and is spread by the tick Ornithodorns turicata. In 

 Panama a similar Spirochaete is probably spread by 0. talaje. 



Spirochaeta gallinarum, Stephens and Christophers, 1905 

 (= Spirochaeta marchouxi, Nuttall, 1905). 



This Spirochaete, which occurs in fowls and is pathogenic, is 

 transmitted by the tick Argas persicus. It is about 10 p to 20 /* long. 

 There is a pathogenic Spirochaete known to occur in geese, named by 

 Sakharoff (1891) S. anserina, and found in Caucasia. This may be 

 the same as S. gallinarum, in which case the name S. anserina will 

 have priority. These organisms cause fever, diarrhcea, anaemia and 

 death. The life history of the avian pathogenic spirochaetes has been 

 studied by Balfour, by Hindle 1 and by Fantham. 2 It is essentially 

 similar to that of 5. duttoni. 



Marchoux and Couvy 3 (1913) consider that the "fragmentation of 

 the chromatin " in spirochaetes is a process of degeneration. Working 

 with A. persicus and S. gallinarum, they state that a large number of 

 the spirochaetes ingested by the Argas almost immediately pass 

 through the wall of the alimentary canal and appear in the haemo- 

 coelic fluid. Marchoux and Couvy consider that Leishman's granules 

 may be found in the Malpighian tubules of various Arachnids. They 

 found spirochaetes in the cephalic glands of infected Argas. They 

 consider that spirochaetes remain as wavy spirochaetes within the tick, 

 if they are to be infective, though the spirochaetes may become so thin 

 as to be invisible ! The latter argument is obviously weak, and it 

 was never asserted that all granules in the Malpighian tubules of 

 infected ticks were derived from spirochaetes. With dark-ground 



1 Parasitology, iv, p. 463. 2 Annals Trap. Med. and Parasitol. (1911), v, p. 479. 



3 Annales Inst. Pasteur, xxvii, pp. 450, 620. 



