The outlines of the parasites are best seen in the capillaries of the 
lung and liver, whereas in sections of the heart and large blood-vessels 
the spirochaetes are generally found massed in broad strands. In the 
spleen at this stage a different condition is observed; the parasites 
being comparatively few in number, and mostly intracellular. 
The shape of the spirochaetes is not everywhere the same; 
characteristic organisms, showing regular spirals, being generally seen 
in lung and heart; while the liver and the spleen contain atypical 
forms, which can be recognised only by their staining reaction, and 
by the conditions under which they are found and by the presence of 
intermediate stages. These forms are seen as small, circular or oval, 
tightly-coiled spirals, about half the size of a red blood-cell. 
Similar forms have been described and figured by Breinl and 
Kinghorn. These authors found “ occasionally in films made from 
the liver and the spleen spirochaetes coiled up into a small compass, 
staining a deep red with Giemsa’s stain, and surrounded by a well- 
stained membrane.” Levaditi has also observed them as occurring in 
the liver of mice, and discusses their probable nature in the light of 
similar appearances met with by himself, Manouelian, Cantazucene, 
v. Prowazek, 3 Schaudinn, and other authors, in the spirillosis of fowls. 
Me interprets them as agony-forms, preceding further stages of 
degeneration and disintegration. v. Prowazek, on the contrary, 
considers these bodies as “ resting stages ” in the life cycle of the 
parasite. 
With regard to this interesting question, 1 may state that these 
forms occur in by far the greatest numbers in the liver, less numerously 
in the spleen, scantily in the lung, while in sections of the heart-blood 
they could not be demonstrated with certainty. 
Moreover, very few, if any, have been observed free in the lumen 
of the capillaries, the majority being easily demonstrated m 
phagocytes. 
1 hese two facts—the excessive disproportion in the number of 
thCSe altered forms found in the liver, and their approximately 
constant relation to phagocytes —seem to afford a strong argument m 
avour of Levaditi’s hypothesis. 
Observations were also made at the crisis of the disease. Breinl 
an Kinghorn have already pointed out the difficulty of determining 
period. In one case described by these authors, the disappe aranCf 
