DISEASES CAUSED BY SPIROCH^TES 851 



forming acute, rather than obtuse, angles. The ends of the micro- 

 organism are delicately tapering -and come to a point. In his iirst 

 investigations, Schaudimi was unable to discover flagella and 

 believed that he saw a marginal undulating membrane similar to that 

 noticed in the trypanosomes. Later observations by this observer, 

 as well as by others, revealed a delicate flagellum at each end, but 

 left the existence of an undulating membrane in doubt. Uncertain, 

 in his later investigations, whether the microorganisms described 

 by him could scientifically be classified with the spirochaste proper, 

 Schaudinn suggested the name of " Treponema pallidum." 



In the same preparations in which Spirochaeta pallida was first 

 seen, other spirochaetes were present, which were easily distinguished 

 from the former by their coarser con- 

 tours, their flatter and fewer undula- 

 tions, their more highly refractile cell 

 bodies, and, in stained preparations, 

 their deeper color. These microorgan- 

 isms were not found regularly, and 

 were interpreted merely as fortuitous 

 and unimportant companions. To them 

 Schaudinn gave the name of "Spiro- 



cha3ta refringens." FlG - OI.-SPIBOCHBTA PAL- 



ml -, . -I . ,. LIDA. Spleen, congenital syph- 



The epoch-making d i s c o v e r y of /T ,./ 



ihs. (Levaditi method.) 



bchaudmn and Hoffmann was soon 



confirmed by many observers, and the etiological relationship 

 of Spirochaeta pallida to syphilis may now be regarded as an accepted 

 fact. Although our inability to cultivate the microorganism has 

 made it impossible to carry out Koch's postulates, nevertheless in- 

 direct evidence of such a convincing nature has accumulated that 

 no reasonable doubt as to its causative importance can be retained. 

 The spirochaetes have been found constantly present in the primary 

 and secondary lesions of all carefully investigated cases, and, so far, 

 have invariably been absent in subjects not afflicted with syphilis. 



Schaudinn himself, not long after his original communication, 

 was able to report seventy cases of primary and secondary syphilis 

 in which these microorganisms were found. Spitzer 12 found them 

 constantly present in a large number of similar cases. Sobernheim 

 and Tomasczewski 14 found the spirochagtes in fifty cases of primary 



"Spitzer, Wien. klin. Woch., 1905. 



14 Sobernheim und Tomasczewski, Munch, med. Woch., 1905. 



