904 MICROBIOLOGY OF DISEASES OF MAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



drugs which are of value in the treatment of syphilis, such as atoxyl 

 (the sodium salt of para-amido-phenyl-arsenic acid) and its acetylated 

 derivative, and of dichlorhydrate-diamido-arseno-benzol. The last- 

 named drug, "salvarsan," "606, " has proved of great importance in 

 the treatment of syphilis. 



YAWS OR FRAMBOCESIA 

 Treponema pertenue Castellani, 1905 



This is a disease of the tropics which was formerly confused with 

 syphilis. It is characterized by the presence, on any part of the body, 

 of more or less numerous warty fungoid lesions which tend to ulcerate. 

 In this disease a primary lesion appears after a period of incubation and 

 this is followed after another interval by a general eruption. It is not 

 a venereal disease as is the case with syphilis. It is caused by a 

 slender spirochaete, Treponema pertenue, which is morphologically 

 identical with the organism of syphilis. Animals which have been 

 immunized to one of these diseases are found to be still susceptible to the 

 other. The organisms in yaws are present in enormous numbers in the 

 hypertrophied and swollen epidermis of the lesions whereas in syphilis 

 they are confined to the deeper tissues. The disease responds more 

 favorably even than syphilis to treatment with salvarsan. 



OTHER SPIROCH^ETAL DISEASES 



LEPTOSPIRA 



Spirochaetaform organisms are the cause of other diseases. Lepto- 

 spira icter aides occurs in yellow fever. Leptospira icterohamorrhagia 

 is the cause of infectious jaundice. Spirochaetes of a form similar 

 to those sometimes found in apparently normal rats and mice occur 

 in the blood of persons suffering from the fever which sometimes 

 follows the bites of, especially, rats. 



Spirochaetes cause diseases of geese in southern Russia and of fowls in 

 Brazil and in other tropical countries. The spirochaete of fowls, Spiro- 

 chata gallinarum, P. Blanchard, is transmitted by ticks, Argas persicus; 

 the means by which the goose spirochsete, Spirochata anserina, Sacharoff , 

 is carried is not known. 



