PART III.] 



Sudden Disappearance of Bacilli from the Blood. 



599 



H.— The probabilities in favour of the Bacilli and Spirilla of the Blood being 



Epiphenomena. 



There is one circumstance in connection with the microscopic appearance which 

 these organisms sometimes present which deserves special mention, as it may serve as 

 an explanation of their sudden disappearance from the blood ; and that is that they 

 may present a well-marked beaded or rosary-chain appearance (Fig. 54). This feature 

 I was able to observe on one occasion only. The spirilla of the ordinary character 

 were plentiful in this person's blood on the evening previous to the day on which 

 this observation was made, but when examined on the following morning there were 

 only linked or rosary-chain spirilla in his blood. They were not very numerous and 

 their movements were not of that rushing character ordinarily observed, but conveyed 

 the impression of tximhling across the field. 



The inference which such an observation appears to warrant is, that when the 

 blood acquires a certain as yet undetermined condition it becomes unadapted to the 

 existence of spirilla, and that the fibrils thereupon undergo segmentation, after the 



manner of other schizomycetes [compare with Fig. 11, 

 Plate XLI], and the separated plastides become diffused 

 throughout the circulation ; possibly they then gradually 

 disappear in the same manner as we have seen other 

 plastides (minute bacteria, etc.) disappear very rapidly 

 after being injected into the circulation. This appears 

 to me to be more probable than that they continue in 

 the circulation until the blood re-acquires the state 

 suitable to their growth into fibrils, seeing that the 

 time for their return is so uncertain — it may be two 

 days, may be six days or a fortnight even, and perhaps 

 they may not return at all. Be that as it may, it is clearly evident that their exist- 

 ence as spirilla is dependent on the composition of the fluids of the body. 



Heydenreich suggests that their disappearance is due to the elevated temperature 

 of the blood at the height of a paroxysm. If that were the case, they ought to 

 become more numerous with the fall of temperature after death, but it is well known 

 that they disappear exceedingly rapidly when life becomes extinct, in this respect 

 offering a marked contrast to other members of the cleft-fungi group— bacteria and 

 bacilli. 



The fact of their total disappearance immediately after death, or probably even 

 before death actually takes place, is very significant as showing the extremely close 

 relation which exists between them and the blood in living tissues, seeing that when 

 the blood is removed from the body the spirilla will, under favourable conditions, 

 retain their power of locomotion for several hours or days. What these subtle changes 

 of the blood during fever-processes may be, chemistry and physiology have not yet 

 revealed; we can therefore only judge of them by the changes of the temperature. 



Fig. 54. — Beaded or rosary-chain ap- 

 pearance assumed by the spirilla 

 found in the blood of a fever 

 patient at Bombay (sketched as 

 seen by Hartnack's immei-sion 

 objective No. 9, ocular 4). 



