TREPONEMATA 515 



in cultures of Treponema pallidum may constitute racial difference 

 within the species. 1 



The ends of the organisms are attenuated and merge almost per- 

 ceptibly into polar flagella, one at each end. The morphology of the 

 Treponemata varies somewhat in artificial media, according to the 

 conditions of growth. According to Noguchi, the typical organisms 

 are only observed in special media where the conditions of culture 

 are strictly anaerobic. The admission of even slight amounts of 

 oxygen produces changes in their appearance. Reproduction, accord- 

 ing to Schaudinn 2 and Noguchi, 3 takes place typically by longitudinal 

 fission rather than by transverse fission, as was claimed by Levaditi 

 and others. This would suggest a relationship with the protozoa 

 rather than with the true bacteria. 



Treponemata are actively motile in young cultures, particularly 

 in media which are fluid or semi-fluid. In agar of ordinary density 

 the motility is considerably lessened or even absent. The motility 

 is brought about by the activity of the polar flagella mentioned above. 

 The character of the motion is twofold : ' a rotation about the long 

 axis, and a true progressive motion. The resultant motion is like 

 that of a corkscrew. Undulatory contractions of the organisms have 

 also been observed. No capsules have been discovered and no spores 

 are produced. It has been claimed that an undulatory membrane 

 has been demonstrated on Treponema pallidum, but this observation 

 has not been adequately confirmed. Treponema pallidum does not 

 stain with ordinary anilin dyes, it is non-acid-fast and can not be 

 stained by Gram's method. The organisms may be demonstrated 

 in the living state on suitable material scraped from syphilitic lesions 

 or stained by special methods '(vide infra) . 



Isolation and Culture. Various successful attempts to induce multi- 

 plication of Treponemata, both in vivo arid in vitro, are on record. 

 Brucker and Gelasesco 4 and Sowade 5 injected material from syphilitic 

 lesions into the testicles of rabbits and observed considerable prolifera- 



1 Nichols (Jour. Exp. Med., 1914, xvii, 362) has described a Treponema isolated from 

 the spinal fluid of a syphilitic which conforms morphologically to the "thick type" of 

 Noguchi. It produces a rapidly developing lesion in the male rabbit when inoculated 

 into the testicle. The incubation period is about two weeks and one-half, and the 

 organism tends to cause generalized secondary lesions in the eye, and the skin. It is 

 not known whether this tendency toward generalized infection is peculiar to this par- 

 ticular strain or whether the thicker organisms -possess in common this property. 



2 Arb. a. d. kais. Gesamte, 1907, xxvi, 11. 



3 Journ. Exp. Med., 1912, xv, 90. 



4 Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., Paris, 1910, Ixviii, 648. 

 8 Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1911, xxxvii, 682. 



