DISEASES CAUSED BY SPIROCH^TES 



863 



multiplication of the spirochaetes in fluid media. They obtained 

 their cultures by inoculating a few drops of spirochsetal rat blood 

 into 3 to 5 c.c. of citrated human or rat blood. Smears made from 

 these tubes, after preservation for twenty-four hours at room tem- 

 perature, showed the microorganisms in greater number than in the 

 original infected blood. A similar multiplication could be observed 

 in transfers made from these "first-generation" tubes to other tubes 

 of citrated blood. Attempts at cultivation for a third generation, 

 however, failed. 



Noguchi 42 has lately successfully cultivated the spirochaete of 



FIG. 94. SPIROCH^TE OF RELAPSING FEVER. Citrated normal rat blood. 

 Norris, Pappenheimer, and Flournoy.) 



(After 



Obermeier in ascitic fluid containing a piece of sterile rabbit 's kidney 

 and a few drops of citrated blood under anaerobic conditions. 



Four different, probably distinct varieties of spirochaete have 

 been described in connection with relapsing fever, all of which have 

 been cultivated by Noguchi by means of this method. The first is 

 known as the spirochaete of Obermeier mentioned above. Probably 

 distinct are the Spirochaeta Duttoni of West African Tick fever 

 described by Button and Todd 43 in 1905, the Spirochaeta Kochi, and 



42 Noguchi, Jour. Exp. Med., xvii, 1913. 

 "Button and Todd, Brit. Med. Jour., 1905. 



