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SPIRILLUM OBERMEIERI. Obermeier (1873). 



SPIRILLUM OP RELAPSING OR RECURRENT FEVER | 

 SPIROCHAETE OBERMEIERI. 



Origin. Always and exclusively present in the blood 

 of relapsing fever patients, especially during the febrile 

 paroxysms, when they may be present in large numbers. 



Form. Delicate flexible, long, wavy spirals. 



Motility. Actively motile. Flagella have been 

 demonstrated. Preserves its motility at ordinary tempera- 

 ture for many days. 



Sporulation. Unknown. 



Anilin Dyes. Rapidly and intensely stained by 

 ordinary dyes. 



Growth. Is an obligative parasite. Has not been 

 successfully cultivated outside of the living body. 



Pathogenesis. Inoculation of healthy individuals 

 with blood which contains these spirals produces typical 

 relapsing fever, which is accompanied by the presence of 

 the characteristic spirals. Can also be transmitted to 

 monkeys, but the animal usually recovers. In monkeys 

 from which the spleen has been removed the spirilla 

 develop in enormous numbers in the blood, and death 

 results. Although it has not been isolated and grown in 

 pure culture, and this, in turn, tested on animals yet the 

 constant presence of the organism in this disease leads to 

 the accepted belief that it is the cause. This is also true 

 of the leprosy bacillus, theplasmodium of malaria and the 

 amaeba coli of dysentery. 



