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URETHRAL SPIROCHAETOSIS. 
By J. W. SCOTT MACFIE, D.Sc., M.B. 
{West African Medical Staff.) 
(With 4 Text-figures and 1 Chart.) 
Spirochaetes have been found in a large number of human 
diseases, in the blood, in various parts of the intestinal tract from the 
mouth to the rectum, in sores and ulcers, and in numerous gangrenous, 
phagedaenic, and inflammatory conditions; but so far as I am able 
to ascertain they have not previously been found in the urethra. 
Recently a case of acute urethritis has come under my notice in which 
a spirochaete was found which appeared to be the specific cause of 
the disease, and I believe that an account of this infection may be 
of interest. I am indebted to Dr A. B. Tighe for bringing this case 
under my notice, for permitting me to examine it whenever I wished, 
and for furnishing all the materials necessary for investigation, and 
I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks to him. 
The patient, a steward boy 21 years of age and a native of the 
Gold Coast, West Africa, was admitted to the Accra hospital on the 
29th July, 1916. About a fortnight previously he had been seen as 
an out-patient by Dr Tighe and had complained of fever, shivering, 
and pains in his shoulders, symptoms which had troubled him for 
about a week. His temperature on this occasion was 100° F. He 
received treatment but did not persevere with it, and being still unwell 
and unfit for work, was sent back on the date mentioned to be treated 
in hospital. On admission he looked ill and low-spirited, his tempera¬ 
ture was 99° F., he complained of pains in the shoulders and left hip, 
but he had no symptoms of malaria and there were no swellings of 
the painful joints. It was discovered, however, that he was suffering 
from acute urethritis the discharge from which had started only the 
day before (28th July). 
The urethral discharge was profuse, thick, foul smelling and tinged 
with blood. It resembled the pus from an abscess more closely than 
