542 Infective Jaundice 



Ogata* thought the disease to be caused by a sporozoan which he 

 carefully described. SchottmuUerf thought it was caused by a 

 Streptothrix muris ratti that he found. Middletonf and Proeschi§ 

 cultivated rod-like organisms and Blake || a streptothrix that he 

 identified with that of Schottmiiller. 



Futaki, Takaki, Taniguchi and Osumi** have, however, come to a 

 different conclusion and appear to have shown that the true etiolog- 

 ical factor is a spirochaeta which in a later contributionft they describe 

 carefvdly under the name Spirochmta morsus muris. This they found 

 in nine cases of the affection that they were fortunate enough to ob- 

 tain for study. Simultaneously appeared a contribution by Ishiwara, 

 Ohtawara and Tamuratt in which a slightly different appearing 

 spirochaeta was described and almost the same results remained. 



Morphology. — Generally speaking these spirochaetse present thick 

 and short forms of about 2-5/1 and have flagella at both ends. 

 Including the flagella they measiue 6-io/i in length. Some forms 

 in the cultures reach a length of 12-19/i excluding the flagella. 

 The curves are regular and the majority have one curve in i/i. 

 Smaller ones are found in the blood and in the tissues. 



Staining. — These spirochaetae stain easily, taking a deep violet 

 red color with Giemsa's stain, which also colors the flagella. They 

 also stain with ordinary anilin dyes. 



Movements. — The movements are very rapid, resembling a vibrio 

 and distinguishing them from all other spirochjets. 



Cultivation. — ^The spirochaeta can be cultivated upon a medium 

 devised by Shimamine prepared as follows: 0.5-0.75 gram of 

 sodium nucleate and 100 cc. of horse serum are shaken until the 

 former is completely dissolved, after which carbon dioxide is 

 passed through the solution for 3-4 minutes until the serum becomes 

 transparent. The liquid is heated on three successive days, for about 

 an hour at 6o°C. On the 4th day it is heated to 65°C. for about thirty 

 minutes, when it separates into a fluid and a coagulated protein. 

 It can also be cultivated by Noguchi's method for T. pallidum. 

 The inoculations are made by thrusting a capillary tube filled with 

 the blood of an animal containing the spirochaetae deeply into the 

 medium. No liquid paraflSne is added. The tubes are kept at 

 37°C. for two weeks. No change is apparent in the medium but 

 the micro-organisms can be detected by the dark field illumination 

 or by staining. Ishiwara, Ohtawara and Tamura were unable to 

 cultivate their spirochaetae. 



* Mitt a. d. med. Fakult. d. k. Univ. z. Tokyo, 1909, viii, 287; 1911, ix, 343. 



t Dermat. Woch., 1914, lviii, Suppl. 77. 

 . t Lancet, 1910, i, 1618. 



§ Internat. Clinics, 1911, Series 21, rv, 77. 



II Jour. Exp. Med., 1916, xxiii, 39. 

 ** Jour. Exp. Med., 1916, xxiii, 249. 

 ft Jour. Exp. Med., 1917, xxv, 33. 

 it Jour. Exp. Med., 1917, xxv, p. 45. 



