598 Microscopic Organisms in Blood of Man and Animals. [part hi. 



In the last number of Cohn's Beitrage (Band II, Heft 3), Dr. Koch has supplied 

 some excellent permanent micro-photographs of the spirilla as observed at St. Petersburg. 

 The spirilla in the osmic acid-preparation which I possess, though presenting the same 

 general characters as those in Dr. Koch's photographs, are somewhat thicker than 

 those depicted in the latter ; whether this points to any slight difference in the blood 

 between the fever which prevailed in Bombay last year and the fever which prevailed 

 in St. Petersburg I am not prepared to say, but this much, I think, I may venture to 

 state, namely, that the difference between the spirilla in the preparation in my possession, 

 and those received from St. Petersburg, as photographed by Dr. Koch, or the spirilla 

 sketched by Weigert (Fig. 51), is as great as the difference which exists between the 

 Spirillum Ohermeieri and the Spirillum plicatile on the one hand, and the Spirillum, of 

 the mouth on the other. As has already been seen, these differences are exceedingly 

 trivial, and it is quite possible that such slight differences may exist in these microphytes 

 in different persons during the same epidemic, and at different times in the same 

 individual, as has been shown to be the case in the preceding pages with regard to the 

 bacilli in the blood. 



It may be useful to say a few words, in passing, regarding the fever which was 

 so prevalent in Bombay during a great part of 1877, as some misapprehension 

 appears to exist as to its exact character. What is described as recurrent fever, and 

 sometimes as bilious typhus or bilious remittent fever, and recurrent typhus, in 

 Germany, is frequently assumed in England to be the same as the " relapsing-famine 

 fever," which was witnessed some years ago in Ireland and elsewhere. Whether in 

 reality the latter fever was or was not the direct offspring of want is not a matter 

 calling for comment here, but what is very definitely known is that outbreaks of 

 recurrent fever in various parts of Russia and Germany, and which were found to be 

 associated with spirilla in the blood, have occurred in districts wholly unassociated 

 with want of any kind. In some cases, indeed, the outbreaks occurred in districts and 

 during periods in which the labouring classes were exceptionally well off. This is a 

 point concerning which no doubt whatever can exist. With regard to the supposed 

 connection of the fever in Bombay with the famine which prevailed in certain parts 

 of the country, I can only state that, so far as I could gather as the result of personal 

 observation and careful inquiry, no sufficient grounds existed to warrant any such 

 supposition ; and Surgeon-General Hunter, after a most careful analysis of the official 

 records, and writing from personal acquaintance with the disease, thus sums up his 

 report on this particular point: "Any distinct causal connection, therefore, between the 

 famine and the fever must be abandoned." * 



It thus follows that the term "relapsing-famine fever" is not applicable to the 

 affection hitherto associated with spirilla in the blood, whether in Germany, Russia, or 

 Bombay. 



* Indian Medical Gazette, October Ist, 1877. 



