CHAPTER XX 



RELAPSING FEVER 



Spiroch^ta Recxjrrentis (Lebert); SpirOchjEta Duttoni, 



NovY AND Knapp; Spiroch^ta Novyi, Schellak; 



Spiroch^ta Carteri, Mackie 



General Characteristics. — An elongate, flexible, flagellated, non-sporogenous, 

 actively motile spiral organism, pathogenic for man and monkeys, susceptible 

 of cultivation in special media, stained by ordinary methods, but not by Gram's 

 method. 



In 1868 Obermeier* first observed the presence of actively motile 

 spiral organisms in the blood of a patient suffering from relapsing 

 fever. Having made the observation, he continued to study the 

 organism until 1873, when he made his first publication. From 

 1873 until 1890 it was supposed that spirochaeta rarely played any 

 pathogenic rdle. Miller f had, indeed, called attention to the con- 

 stant presence of Spirochaeta dentinum in the human mouth, but 

 it had not been connected with any morbid condition. In 1890 

 Sacharoff J discovered a spirillary infection of geese in the Caucasus, 

 caused by an organism much resembhng Spirochaeta obermeieri 

 and called Spirochaeta anserinum. In 1903 Marchoux and Salim- 

 beni§ found a third disease, fatal to chickens, caused by Spirochaeta 

 galUnarum, and found that the spread of the disease was determined 

 by the bites of a tick, Argas miniatus. In 1902 TheUer, || in the Trans- 

 vaal, observed a spiral organism in a cattle plague. This has been 

 named after him by Laveran, Spirochaeta theileri. It was found to 

 be disseminated by the bites of certain ticks — Rhipicephalus decolor- 

 atus. Later, what was probably the same organism, was found in 

 the blood of sheep and horses. In 1905 Nicolle and Comte** found 

 a spiral organism infecting certain bats. By this time, therefore, 

 it became evident that spirochaetal infections were fairly well dis- 

 seminated among the lower animals and that the spirochaeta were 

 of different species with different hosts and intermediate hosts. 



In 1904 Ross and Milneft and Button and ToddtJ studied a 

 peculiar African fever which they were able to refer to a spirochaeta 



* "Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissenschaft," 1873. 



t Micro-organisms of the Human Mouth, Phila., 1890, p. 44 et seq. 



} "Ann. de I'lnst. Pasteur," 1891, xvi. No. 9, p. 564. 



§ Ibid., 1903, XVII, p. 569. 



II "Jour. Comp. Path, and Therap.," 1903, xlvii., 1903, XLVli, p. $$. 

 ** " Compt.-rendu de la Soc. de Biol, de Paris," July 22, 1905, Lix, p. 200. 

 tt "British Med. Jour.," Nov. 26, 1904, p. 1453. 



ij" Memoir XVII, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine," "Brit. Med. Jour.," 

 Nov. II, 1905. P- 1259- 



sao 



