80 J. B. CLELAND. 
gica in sewer rats. Supplementing this discovery, Martin 
and Pettit found it in a Norway rat in Europe coming from 
an army area in which there had been a case of the spiro- 
chetosis, whilst Courmont and Durand! found it in 4 out 
of 50 sewer rats (E. norvegicus) in areas in France in which 
the disease was not known in man. The conclusion seems 
justifiable, therefore, that this organism is a parasite of the 
sewer-rat in various parts of the world, and it seems prob- 
able that this rat is its chief distributing agent. 
During 1917 we carried out some experimental inocula- 
tions to see whether this spirochete could be detected in rats 
in this State. For this purpose, on October 5th, six kidneys 
from six EL’. norvegicus were ground up in normal saline solu- 
tion and injected into the subcutaneous tissues of the groins 
of two guinea-pigs; on October 8th, three kidneys from 
three EL. rattus were similarly employed; on October 9th, 
four kidneys from four EH. norvegicus, and on October 11th, 
three kidneys from three FE. rattus were likewise injected 
into other pairs of guinea-pigs. Of the eight guinea-pigs 
used, one of the first pair died of sepsis within three days. 
The other seven remained unaffected, from which may be 
inferred the absence of the Spirocheta wterohemorrhagica 
in the 10 E. norvegicus and the 6 E. rattus used for the ex- 
periments. 
The occurrence of occasional cases of fatal jaundice (?) 
in monkeys in Taronga Zoological Park led to a careful ex- © 
amination of them for the spirochetes of this disease. These 
were not found either in suitably treated sections of the 
tissues, or by inoculations of emulsions of the spleens and 
kidneys into the susceptible guinea-pig. Equally unsuc- 
cessful in conveying the disease was the injection of an- 
other monkey with such an emulsion. Further, on Novem- 
1 Bull. et Mém. de la Soc. Méd. des Hépitaux de Paris, 1917. p, 115; 
quoted in Rev. of Bact., etc., VII, 1917, No. 50. 
