SP I RON EM A PHAGEDENIC 591 
ciated with a fusiform bacillus in 2 cases of noma. The identity 
of the various organisms is as yet undetermined, and their etiological 
relationship to genital ulcerations, phagedenic ulcers, and noma is 
not satisfactorily established. Levaditi and Stanesco^ cultivated two 
spiral organisms from genital ulcers, one of which, Spirocha^ta balani- 
tidis, appears to be very similar to Spirosoma balanitidis. Growths 
were obtained in horse serum, first by immersing the morbid material in 
the serum, then after three or four days, reintroducing it into collodion 
capsules immersed in horse serum. Ten generations were thus obtained. 
The descriptions, however, are not wholly complete. Xoguchi- has 
isolated a spiral organism in pure culture from a phagedenic ulcer, 
using the technique employed by him for cultivation of Treponema pal- 
lidum. This organism is the only member of the group observed in 
genital ulcerations and phagedenic ulcers which has been satisfactorily 
studied up to the present time. 
Spironema phagcdcnis. (Corbus.) 
Morphology.— The organism measures about 0.75 micron in diameter 
and about 15 microns in length, although the length varies between 
limits of the 4 and 30 microns. The number of spirals varies materi- 
ally in different organisms in the same culture, from 2 complete turns 
to an many as 8. The ends of the organisms are found to be dis- 
tinctly pointed, but not attenuated. In young cultures the organ- 
isms were found to be fairly uniform in size, from 10 to 15 microns 
long. In older growths the length is greater on the average, varying 
from 20 to 30 microns. The number of spiral turns and the spiral 
turns themselves are more irregular in the older growths. This 
organism appears to be devoid of a terminal flagellum or a terminal 
projection. In very old cultures signs of degeneration appear, and 
.spherical bodies measuring about 0.5 micron in diameter are found 
either attached to degenerating organisms or free. These spherical 
1 Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., 1909, 68, 188. 
2 Jour. Exp. Med., 1912, 16, 261. 
