614 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



from carious teeth, and occasionally among the microorganisms in the 

 pus from old sinuses. Several varieties of these bacilli have been de- 

 scribed in connection with definite pathological conditions. 



Babes, 1 in 1893, observed spindle-shaped bacilli not unlike those 

 described above, but somewhat shorter, in histological sections prepared 

 from tissues from the gums of individuals suffering from scurvy. He 

 found similar bacilli in rabbits intravenously inoculated with material 

 from the patients and was able to cultivate the bacilli for several genera- 

 tions. His descriptions, however, of the microorganisms as found in the 

 secondary cultures vary considerably from those of the original findings 

 in the gums of the patients. His results are not convincing. 



In noma, a gangrenous disease of the gums and cheeks, occurring 

 occasionally in individuals who have been severely run down by acute 

 infectious diseases or great hardship, Weaver and Tunnicliff have found 

 spirilla and fusiform bacilli in large numbers. The organisms were pres- 

 ent not only in smears from the surface, but were also found by histo- 

 logical methods, in large numbers, lying in the tissues beyond the 

 area of necrosis. Here again it is not entirely certain whether these 

 microorganisms were the primary etiological factors or whether 

 they are to be regarded merely as secondary invaders of a necrotic 

 focus. 



Fusiform bacilli are cultivated with greater ease than formerly sup- 

 posed; we have found it relatively simple to grow them together with 

 Gram positive cocci in symbiosis in simple broth tubes covered with 

 paraffin oil without the addition of any enriching substance and in 

 similar symbiotic conditions on infusion agar plates under incomplete 

 anaerobic conditions. In such plates they form curious colonies in 

 which the fusiform bacilli and micrococci are intimately commingled. 

 Krumwiede 2 has had no difficulty in cultivating them in pure culture 

 in anaerobic plates. 



SPIROCHJETA PERTENUIS 



In a disease known as "Frambcesia tropica," or popularly "Yaws," 

 occurring in tropical and subtropical countries and much resembling 

 syphilis, Castellani, 3 in 1905, was able to demonstrate a species of 

 spirochaete which has a close morphological resemblance to Spirochaeta 

 pallida. The microorganism was found in a large percentage of the cases 



1 Babes, Deut. med. Woch., xliii, 1893. 



2 Krumwiede, Jour. Inf. Dis., 1913. 



3 Castellani, Brit. Med. Jour., 1905, and Deut. med. Woch., 1906. 



