592 PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 
its termination ; sometimes they are present in great numbers, and 
at others can only be found by searching several microscopic fields; 
they are not present in the various secretions—urine, sweat, saliva, 
etc. In fatal cases the principal pathological changes are found in 
the spleen, which is greatly enlarged, and in the liver and marrow 
of the bones, which contain inflammatory and necrotic foci. Koch 
and Carter have succeeded in transmitting the disease to monkeys - 
by subcutaneous inoculations with small amounts of defibrinated 
blood containing the spirillum. After an incubation period of seve- 
ral days typical febrile paroxysms were developed, during which 
the actively motile spirilla were found in the blood in large numbers. 
Blood from one animal, taken during the attack, induced a similar 
febrile paroxysm when inoculated into another of the same species— 
relapses, such as characterize the disease in man, were not observed. 
One attack did not preserve the animals experimented upon from a 
similar attack when they were again inoculated after an interval of 
a few days. Soudakewitch (1891) has made successful inoculation 
experiments in monkeys, and has shown thatin monkeys from which 
the spleen has previously been removed the spirilla continue to 
multiply very abundantly in the blood and the disease has a fatal 
termination, whereas in monkeys from which the spleen has not been 
removed the spirilla disappear from the blood within a few days 
after the access of the febrile paroxysm and the animal recovers. 
SPIRILLUM ANSERUM. 
Synonym.—Spirocheta anserina (Sakharoff). 
Obtained by Sakharoff (1890) from the blood of geese affected by a fatal 
form of septicemia due to this spirillum. This disease prevails among geese 
in Caucasia, especially in swampy regions, appearing annually and destroy- 
ing a large number of the domestic geese. 
Morphology.—Resembles the spirillum of relapsing fever. The long and 
flexible spiral filaments, when the disease is at its height, are often seen in 
interlaced masses, around the margins of which radiate single filaments 
which by their movements cause the whole mass to change its place, as if it 
were a Single organism. These masses are sometimes so large that a single 
‘one occupies the entire field of the microscope. 
Stains with the usual aniline colors. 
Biological Characters.—An aérobic, motile spirillum. Not cultivated 
in artificial media. The movements-are very active, resembling those of 
Spirillum Obermeieri, but cease in an hour or two in preparations made from 
the blood of geese containing it. 
Pathogenesis.—A small quantity of blood from an infected goose inocu- 
lated into a healthy animal of the same species induces the disease after a 
period of incubation of four to five days. The infected goose ceases to eat, 
‘becomes apathetic, remaining in one a Ae and usually he at the end of a 
week ; the temperature is increased, and in some cases there is diarrhea. 
The spirilla are found in the blood at the outset of the malady, but after 
death they are not seen either in the blood orin the various organs. The 
heart and the liver are found to have undergone a fatty degeneration, and 
yellowish, cheesy granules the size of a millet seed are seen upon the surface 
of these organs. The spleen is soft and easily broken up by the fingers, 
