736 THE SPIROCELETE OF SYPHILIS 



found two species of spirochaetes quite different from the Treponema pallidum. 

 They both stain blue by Giemsa's method and in both the undulations are 

 irregular and flat. 



Spirochceta microgimta is small and delicate measuring 2'5-6/^. It has 

 four to twelve turns in the spiral and these are so close together as to appear 

 to touch. It stains well with borax-blue. 



Spirochceta Icewenthali is thicker than the Treponema ; the turns of the 

 spiral are irregular and it seems to have an undulatory membrane. 



H. Treponema pallidulum (Spirochceta pertenuis}. Yaws or Frambcesia 

 (Fr. Pian) is a contagious and inoculable disease very common in the tropics 

 and characterized by papillomatous lesions which do not affect the mucous 

 membranes. It is caused by an organism very closely related to that of 



FIG. 351 . Scraping from an infected mucous papule. Dark-ground illumina- 

 tion. (After Gastou.) Various spirochsetes. 



syphilis, and was first described by Castellani under the name Spirochceta 

 pallidula. 



The following characteristics, according to Castellani and Prowazek, serve 

 to identify the Treponema pallidulum : it is a little thicker than the Treponema 

 pallidum : the turns of the spiral are rather crowded and irregular : its ends, 

 often coiled up together, are usually rounded and a terminal flagellum is not 

 a constant feature. 



SECTION IV. CULTIVATION EXPERIMENTS. 



[Until recently] it has not been possible to grow the Treponema pallidum 

 in artificial media. 



Volpino and Fontana cut off under aseptic precautions fragments of 

 syphilitic lesions (chancres, papular lesions) and sowed the pieces both 

 aerobically and anaerobically either in human blood, citrated human blood, 

 serum or ascitic fluid and incubated the tubes at 37 C. Various contaminat- 

 ing organisms grew in the culture fluid but in no case was a culture of the 

 treponema obtained ; in the fragments of the tissues themselves on the 

 other hand a considerable multiplication of spirochaetes was demonstrated 

 after about 8-10 days. Even when no spirochsetes could be found in the 



