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Updated: May 23, 2025
"It is the spirillum Obermeieri," said Kennedy, "the germ of the relapsing fever, but of the most virulent Asiatic strain. Obermeyer, who discovered it, caught the disease and died of it, a martyr to science." A shriek of consternation rang forth from Samarova. The rest of us paled, but repressed our feelings. "One moment," added Kennedy hastily. "Don't be unnecessarily alarmed.
"In some way," he replied quickly, "they have become infected by the bite of an African tick which carries spirillum fever." "She got away, in a cab," panted the assistant, returning. Godowski raised his hands in despair. "I was just about to start," he cried. "Everything is ready. I can't send for another nurse. Every minute counts." Elaine had thrown off her coat and hat.
But a resting state of the comma bacilli has never been met with a very exceptional thing in the case of bacilli, and another reason why the organism must be regarded rather as a spirillum than a bacillus, for the spirilla require only a fluid medium, and do not, like the anthrax bacilli, thrive in a dry state.
Here, by scraping, you may discover hundreds of these loathsome beasts in every foot of wall. But they are fortunately different from the grass ticks that, though unpleasant, are not dangerous to man. For the tick that carries the spirillum is blind and cannot climb any smooth surface. So to one sleeping on a bed or even a native "machela" above the ground, he is harmless.
Bacteria are commonly given a generic name based upon their microscopic appearance. There are only a few of these names. Micrococcus, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Sarcina, Bacterium, Bacillus, Spirillum, are all the names in common use applying to the ordinary bacteria. There are a few others less commonly used.
Quickly he improvised two operating tables, and placed one of us on each. Then, with his assistant, he put on his white robes, mask, gloves and other precautions for asepsis, setting out the apparatus for the intravenous administration of the drug that would kill the spirillum. Godowski was busy with the atoxyl, mixing it in a normal salt solution.
There can be no question that he saw them, for we can recognize in his descriptions of these various forms of little "animals" the four principal forms of microbes the long and short rods of bacilli and bacteria, the spheres of micrococci, and the corkscrew spirillum.
By looking at the largest form of this group, you will see that it is provided with two delicate fibers, one at each end. Ehrenberg and others strongly suspected their existence, and we were enabled, with more perfect lenses, to demonstrate their presence some twelve years ago. They are actually the swimming organs of this Spirillum.
It will mean getting started every morning at three o'clock, marching until ten, then sweating under mosquito bars during the heat of the day, with spirillum ticks, sleeping-sickness flies, and all sorts of pests to bother one; then long days on the Nile, with nothing to see but papyrus reeds on each side."
On account of this developmental change, he doubted if the cholera organism should be ranked with bacilli; it is rather a transitional form between the bacillus and the spirillum. Possibly it is a true spirillum, portions of which appear in the comma shape, much as in other spirilla e. g., spirilla undula, which do not always form complete spirals, but consist only of more or less curved rods.
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