444 RELAPSING FEVER. 



RELAPSING FEVER. 



At a comparatively early date, namely in 1873, 

 practically nothing was known with regard to the production 

 of disease by bacteria, a highly characteristic organism was 

 discovered in the blood of patients suffering from relapsing 

 fever. This discovery was made by Obermeier, and the 

 organism is usually known as the spirillum or spirachcete 

 Obermeieri, or the spirillum of relapsing fever. He described 

 its microscopical characters, and found that its presence in 

 the blood had a definite relation to the time of the fever, 

 as the organism rapidly disappeared about the time of the 

 crisis, and reappeared when a relapse occurred. He failed 

 to find such an organism in any other disease. His 

 observations were fully confirmed, and his views as to its 

 causal relationship to the disease were generally accepted. 

 Later, the disease was produced in the human subject by 

 inoculations with blood containing the organisms, and a 



similar condition has 

 been produced in 

 apes. 



Characters of the 

 Spirillum. The or- 

 ganisms as seen in the 

 blood during the fever 

 are delicate spiral 

 filaments which have 

 a length of 2 to 6 

 times the diameter 

 of a red blood cor- 

 puscle. They are, 

 however, exceedingly 

 thin, their thickness 



FIG - w I5 :r Sp ,S lla of relapsing fe y" in bein s much less than 



human blood. rum preparation. (Alter , ... . . 



Koch.) x about 1000. that of the cholera 



spirillum. They show 



several regular sharp curves or windings, of number varying 

 according to the length of the spirilla, and their extremities 





