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ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND LIFE 
HISTORY OF SPIROCHAETA D UTTONI 
ANTON BREINL, M.U.Dr. Prag 
DIRECTOR OF THK RUNCORN RESEARCH LABORATORIES OK THE LIVERPOOL 
SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 
From the Runcorn Research Laboratories of the Liverpool School 
of Tropical Medicine 
(Received July 1 st , 11 ) 07 ) 
In the course of our experimental study of the spirochaete of 
African Relapsing fever, Spirocheeta duttoni} numerous films were 
made of the blood, and of the organs, of animals in the diffeient stages 
of the disease, with a view of ascertaining the life-history of the 
parasite. Considerable uncertainty still exists concerning the 
morphology and the life cycle of the whole group of spirochaetes. 
While Novy and Knapp 2 deny that the parasites undergo any 
morphological changes, Prowazek, 3 in his work on fowl spirochaetes, 
gives them an undulating membrane and a definite nuclear apparatus, 
and also describes intra-cellular stages. One terminal flagellum was 
observed by Novy and Knapp in Spirocheeta obermeieri , and by 
Stephens 4 in Spirocheeta duttoni ; Zettnow, 5 on the other hand, 
describes peritrichal flagella in Spirocheeta duttoni , and Borrel in 
fowl spirochaetes. 
The stain employed in the present work was Giemsa’s modification 
of Romanowsky’s stain, in dry films. Wet films were not found 
possess any particular advantage when working with this parasite. 
The spirochaete consists of a darkly stained central core, which is 
surrounded by a light-stained periplastic sheath. This sheath exten 
beyond the central chromatic core, and is drawn out at one en 
an elongated filament, thus forming a structure which has been 
described by various observers as a terminal flagellum. a emp 
