elapsing Fever 



619 



In 1904 Ross and Milne* and Button and Toddf studied 

 a peculiar African fever which they were able to refer to a 

 spirochaete for which NovyJ has proposed the name Spiro- 

 chaete duttoni in memory of Button, who lost his life while 

 studying it. It was found that this organism, like most of 

 the others described, was transmitted by a tick, Orintho- 

 doros moubata. 



With the work of Schaudinn and his associate, Hoffmann, 

 the question arose as to the nature of the spiral organisms, 

 Schaudinn believing them to be protozoan parasites. The 



Fig. 182. Spirochaete obermeieri from human blood (Kolle and 

 Wassermann) . 



arguments in favor of this are the peculiar form and appear- 

 ance of the organisms; Schaudinn's belief in the demon- 

 stration of an undulating membrane; the refusal of the 

 organisms to grow upon artificial media ; and the role of the 

 intermediate host (ticks, etc.) in spreading the disease. 

 Against the protozoan theory are the transverse division of 

 the organism, the absence of structures as definite as those 

 seen in protozoa, the absence of any indication of any 

 definite developmental cycle, and, as emphasized by Novy, 

 the failure of the organisms to undergo plasmolysis when 



* "British Med. Jour./' Nov. 26, 1904, p. 1453. 



t" Memoir xvn, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine," "Brit. 

 Med. Jour.," Nov. n, 1905, p. 1259. 



J "Jour. Infectious Diseases," 1906, in, p. 295. 



"Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," Oct., 1905, xxxi, p. 1665; 

 "Arbeiten aus dem kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte," 1904, xx, pp. 387- 

 439- 



