870 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



in rabbits intravenously inoculated with material from the patients and was 

 ab'le to cultivate the bacilli for sevei al generations. 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 uoma, a gangrenous disease of the gums and cheeks, occurring occa- 

 sionally 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 present not only 

 in smears from the surface, but were also found by histological 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 supposed; 

 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 56 has had no difficulty in cultivating 

 them in pure culture in anaerobic plates. 



SPIROCHJETA PERTENUE 



In a disease known as ' t Framboesia tropica," or popularly 

 "Yaws," occurring in tropical and subtropical countries and much 

 resembling syphilis, Castellani, 57 in 1905, was able to demonstrate 

 a species of spirochaete which has a close morphological resemblance 

 to Spirochseta pallida. The microorganism was found in a large 

 percentage of the cases examined both in the cutaneous papules and 

 in ulcerations. Confirmatory investigations on a larger series of 

 cases were later carried out by von dem Borne. 58 



The microorganism is from 7 to 20 micra in length with numerous 

 undulations and pointed ends. Examined in fresh preparations, it 

 has an active motility similar to that of Spirochasta pallida. In 

 smears it is easily stained by means of the Giemsa method. 



Both the clinical similarity between yaws and syphilis, as well 

 as the similarity between the microorganisms causing the diseases, 



58 Krumwiede, Jour. Inf. Dis., 1913. 



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



K von dem Borne, Jour. Trop. Med., 10, 1907. 



