108 
A PARASITIC SPIRAL ORGANISM IN THE STOMACH 
OF THE CAT. 
By R. K. S. LIM. 
(From the Department of Physiology, University of Edinburgh.) 
(With Plate VII). 
While examining sections of the apparently normal cat’s stomach, clusters of 
organisms were found within the lumina of numerous ducts and glands— 
especially of the pyloric region. Further examination, employing various 
methods of staining, revealed the spiral nature of the organisms. The presence 
of large numbers suggested that they were actively growing and in the absence 
of obvious gastric disturbance in the cats in which they were found, it was 
concluded that they were non-pathogenic parasites. 
The author has been unable to find any reference in bacteriological litera¬ 
ture to such an organism in the cat, although Noguchi (1915-16) refers to 
the finding by Bell and Ruquet of a similar form of organism in the stomach 
of the dog. Spiral organisms have also been described by Lucet (1910) in a 
case of gastro-enteritis in the dog. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Eight animals were affected: they had all been in the laboratory for some 
months. Cats which were killed immediately on admission or which had been 
isolated, were unaffected. Rabbits which had been kept in adjacent cages 
were not infected. 
The stomach was the only organ in which the organisms (hereinafter 
referred to as “spirochaetes”) were found, except a few in the duodenum, 
close to the pyloric sphincter. Preparations from the liver, spleen and bone 
marrow were negative. Within the stomach, the spirochaetes were found 
throughout the whole fundus, including the cardia, and in the pyloric antrum 
and canal. They were most numerous in the latter situation. It should be 
noted that in the cat, oxyntic cells are only absent within a narrow area, 
half to three-quarters of an inch, proximal to the pyloric sphincter, and that 
therefore the fundus and the major portion of the antrum are histologically, 
and probably functionally, similar. The term “fundus” in the following 
description is applied to the whole area of the stomach bearing oxyntic cells, 
and “pylorus” to the narrow area devoid of them. 
