INDIAN FORM OF RELAPSING FEVER. 189 



tested, of an animal which has already been rendered thoroughly immune 

 to the strain of spirochseta supposedly different. Schellack -'^ has recently 

 described the morphological differences in the European, American and 

 African spirochsetse of the recurring fevers but Leishman -^ could not 

 make any distinction between them from a morphological standpoint. 

 Kolle and Schatiloff -* have reported upon the use of the complement 

 fixation reaction with human immune serum, from cases convalescent 

 from relapsing fever, for the purpose of the differentiation of the different 

 species. 



The question then suggested itself whether the form of Indian relaps- 

 ing fever, known as Bombay spirillum fever constituted another disease, 

 or one which was caused by one of those species of spirochsetse already 

 recognized and described. This fever has been known to be very common 

 in India since 1853 and was carefully described by Van Dyke Carter 

 in 1877.^^ The important descriptions which have been previously 

 published upon the relation which this fever bears to the European relaps- 

 ing fever are those of ISTovy and Knapp -^ and of Mackie " of Bombay. 

 Novy and Knapp, after a study of several blood smears sent them by 

 Patton from Bombay, concluded from several very minor differences in 

 morphology, such as slight variations in thickness (the American spiril- 

 lum appearing thicker), and a tendency of the Indian spirillum to form 

 loops, particularly in agglutination, and to show multiple transverse divi- 

 sion, that perhaps the Indian strain constituted a new species, different 

 from the American one. Novy and Knapp admitted, however, that there 

 might be some question about the Indian variety of spirochaeta represent- 

 ing a distinct species and in the absence of fresh material they were 

 unable to settle the question. They stated that several division zones like 

 those of the Bombay organism, and like those present in Spirochceta 

 Duttonni, are not found in the American species of spirochgeta. However, 

 Oppenheimer -* found these same phenomena in the American species. 

 She concludes that — ■ 



"1. The New York Spirochwta Obermeierl can not yet, as has been attempted, 

 be separated from the African spirochaeta, upon the following grounds: (1) The 

 length of its stay in the peripheral blood of the rat, (2) the number of relapses 

 in the rat, (3) the lack of figure-8 and circular forms, (4) the absence of several 

 transverse breaks; for the length of stay in the peripheral blood probably varies 

 with the method of passage, relapses are an uncertain quantity since it is 

 perhaps not positively established that tliey occur at all ; figure-8 forms and 

 circles and finally several division zones exist in the New York spirillum as well 

 as in 8p. Duttoni and in the spirillum of Bombay." 



''Arb. a. d. k. Gsndisamtc (1907), 27 Heft II., 364. 



''Lancet (1907), 1, 806. 



''* Deutsche med. Wchnsch. (1908), 34, 1176. 



'^ Med. Chir. Trans. (1877), 41, 274. 



-" Loc. cit. 



-^Lancet (1907), 2, 832. 



-" Collected Studies Research Lah., DcjH. Health, N. Y. (1906), 2, 146. 



