Scientific Proceedings. ( l %7) l 7 



two days. After four days of normal temperature, there was a 

 rise of temperature to 105 °, which was followed by a period of 

 apyrexia for ten days, when he again had a relapse. At that time 

 the examination of the blood by Dr. Heitlinger showed the pres- 

 ence of a few spirochetas. Ten days later there was another re- 

 lapse and rise in temperature, associated with the presence of 

 spirochetas in the blood. Inoculation of a monkey with blood 

 containing the organisms gave rise to an infection, with the pres- 

 ence of spirochetas. The monkey has had three relapses thus 

 far with rise of temperature, and the presence of spirochetas in 

 the blood. Two additional monkeys have been infected with the 

 blood of the first monkey. 



The case reported is of interest from many points of view. It 

 appears to be the first case of spirochetal infection reported in this 

 country that was verified by microscopic examination of the blood. 

 Another case, it is said, has been recently observed in one of the 

 hospitals of this city. 



The research work of the past few years, upon the tropic dis- 

 eases of man and animals, has brought to light, especially in South 

 Africa, the discovery of the etiologic agents of various hitherto 

 little understood diseases. 



Obermeier, in an epidemic of relapsing fever in 1868, in St. 

 Petersburg, was the first to discover the presence of spirochetas in 

 the blood of patients suffering from so-called relapsing fever. The 

 observation was not published, however, until five years later. To 

 Obermeier belongs the credit of having first demonstrated the so- 

 called contagium vivum of infectious diseases in man. The asso- 

 ciation of spirochetas with another infectious disease was made by 

 Sacharoff in 1 890 ; he demonstrated the etiologic connection of 

 Spirochete anserina to the spirillum fever or septicemia of geese. 

 In recent years, other spirochetas have been described in connec- 

 tion with disease processes. Thus, A. Theiler has described what 

 he calls la spirillose du betail caused by a spirocheta which is 

 found in the blood, where it produces an anemia, being present 

 among cattle in a bad condition. Like the piroplasma bigeminum, 

 it lives in the blood of immune cattle, as the disease has been in- 

 oculated with the blood of such cattle. The disease is conveyed 

 through the agency of the blue tick, which is the intermediate 



