﻿444 ASHBURN AND CRAIG. 



be washed away, as the friction necessary in this process probably causes an 

 increased flow of blood to the lesion; at any rate, a remarkably profuse flow is 

 so obtained. On the other hand, if the cap be merely pulled off, the serous flow 

 may be very slight and it only becomes profuse when the papilloma is rubbed with 

 the end of a slide or with a piece of gauze, and even then it is not so abundant 

 and so free from cells as the serum obtained by the first method. 



It is remarkable how clean and how free from body cells and bacteria the 

 slides thus made may be. 



B. Fresh serum. — This was obtained in the same way as that for staining, 

 except that it was generally allowed to flow into capillary tubes, whence it was 

 blown out upon slides and diluted or not, as seemed desirable, with a small 

 amount of normal saline solution. It was then covered with a thin cover glass, 

 the glass ringed with vaseline and examination made with a high power. 



C. — Capillary tube preparations were made as indicated above, the tubes being 

 sealed when filled and kept at room temperature (usually about 30° centigrade) 

 for variable lengths of time, when they were broken, the contents blown out and 

 examined stained or unstained, or both. 



In addition to the examinations made of the serum, in the ways just indicated, 

 we excised two papillomata and sectioned and stained them by Levaditi's method. 

 We were unable to demonstrate the Treponema in these preparations, but in 

 sections similarly stained and sent to us by Captain Russell, acting curator of 

 the Army Medical Museum, they are seen in great numbers, lying among the 

 epithelial cells, but less numerous among the deeper layers of these. The 

 organisms are in many instances aggregated into clumps similar to those obtained 

 in the capillary tubes. The cells among which the organisms are found always 

 show signs of degeneration, loss of outline, indistinctness of nuclei, and vacuola- 

 tion. Such areas are localized and present the appearance of lacunae of degen- 

 eration. 



DESCRIPTION OF TREPONEMA PERTENUIS CASTELLANI. 



a. Morphology. 1 — The morphology of the treponema may be very briefly 

 described by the statement that it is indistinguishable, so far as we can 

 determine, from that of Treponema pallidum. In shape, size, staining 

 reactions, appearance of ends, etc., the two are similar, and neither we nor 

 • the many medical men and investigators to whom we have shown the 

 organisms and whose opinion we have sought, are able to differentiate 

 them. 



In length Treponema pertennis varies considerably, some short forms 

 not being longer than about 4 m. It is possible that other forms may 

 be even shorter than this, but if so they are not recognizable as treponema. 

 More commonly they are about 10 to 12 /x in length, while individuals are 

 even longer. Occasionally very long forms are seen, 20 and 25 or very 

 rarely even 30 ft, but whether these are single individuals, or multiplying 

 or agglutinating forms in which two individuals are joined end to end, 

 we can not yet determine. 



The width of the organism is so very slight that we are unable to 

 measure it with exactness. We estimate its width as probably varying 

 from one-sixth to one-half of a micron. If the line of a filar micrometer 

 is brought as near to one side of a loop of the treponema as is possible 



