406 MICROBIOLOGY 



TRYPANOSOMES AFFECTING MAN. 



In 1802 Winter-bottom reported the occurrence among the 

 negroes on the west coast of Africa of a disease characterized 

 by a tendency to sleep. Since that time it has been known as 

 "Sleeping Sickness." In 1901, Button examined with Dr. 

 Forde a patient affected with this disease. He found that the 

 small worm-like bodies previously observed by Forde were 

 trypanosomes. Button 1 named it Trypanosoma gambiense. 

 It was found that this parasite was transmitted largely by an 

 insect, Glossina palpalis. It was observed as early as 1907 by 

 Koch that it could be transmitted by contact. Hindle 2 has 

 shown experimentally that this parasite will pass through the 

 mucous membrane of the vagina and also through the skin in 

 the absence of any lesion. 



TREPONEMA ANSERINA. 



Synonyms. Spirochaeta gallinarum; Spirochaeta Mar- 

 chouxi; Treponema gallinarum. 



Place in nature. Sakharoff * in 1891 demonstrated that 

 this organism was the cause of a septicemia in geese. Although 

 the disease is a septicemia Levaditi has shown that the organ- 

 isms invade the intercellular spaces of various organs. The 

 disease usually runs an acute course in young fowls. The virus 

 is transmitted by the tick Argas persicus and possibly by A. 

 miniatus and reflexus. In 1903 Marchoux and Salimbeni 2 de- 

 scribed a spirochaete (Sp. gallinarum) as the cause of a disease 

 of fowls in Brazil. It has not been determined whether these 

 two organisms are identical or represent independent species 

 as first described. Spirochaetosis, or the disease produced by 

 them in fowls, has been reported from Russia and various 

 parts of Northern and Southern Africa, Southern Asia and 

 South America. Whether this species has a habitat outside of 



1 Button and Ford. Jour. Trop. Med., Sept. 1, 1902. 



2 Hindle. Parasitology, Vol. IV (1911) p. 24. 

 Sakharoff. Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur, Vol. V (1891) p. 564. 



2 Marchoux and Salimbeni. Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur, Vol. XVII 

 (1903) p. 569. 



