FUETHER OBSERVATIONS 



ON 



FLAGELLATED ORGANISMS 



IN THE 



BLOOD OF ANIMALS. 



BY 



Surgeon-Major T. E. LEWIS, M.B. 



ASSISTANT-PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY, ARMY MEDICAL SCHOOL, NETLEY. 



1884. 



> ♦»• < 



In a memoir on "The Microscopic Organisms found in the Blood of Man and 

 Animals," published in the " Fourteenth Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner 

 with the Grovernment of India," and which was, in great part, reproduced in the first 

 three numbers of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for January 1879, a 

 chapter was devoted to a description of certain flagellated organisms which I had found 

 in the blood of rats. This chapter will be found at p. 604 of this volume, so that 

 it will not be necessary to do more than very briefly recapitulate what was given 

 therein. 



Having been directed to make certain inquiries regarding the nature of the 

 sometimes designated, " spirillum-fever " which prevailed in Bombay during the earlier 

 part of 1877, I had occasion to examine the blood of a considerable number of animals, 

 and in July of that year detected spirillum-like organisms in the blood of healthy rats. 

 In some instances these were so numerous that the blood when examined under a 

 high power seemed to quiver with life. On careful focussing it was ascertained that 

 each organism consisted of a body-portion and of an extension of it in the form of 

 a gradually tapering, long flagellum, the former average 25/ji in length by l/j, in 

 width, whilst the flagellum brought up the total length of the organism to about 

 50/x. or longer, for it was by no means certain that the whole length of the free end 

 of the flagellum was visible. They were found not to be very sensitive to reagents, 

 as they continued, for example, to manifest lively movements in a weak solution of 

 bichloride of mercury for eight hours, and an exposure of several minutes to chloro- 

 form vapour did not seem to affect them. A weak solution of ammonia did not 

 affect them for some time, but a stronger solution of potash affected them at once. 

 When a drop of blood containing them was placed on a slide arranged for the 



