.  Relapsing  Fever.  Famine  Fever. — The  spirochaete  of  Obermeyer
(see  Fig.  122)  is  an  organism  usually  curled  like  a  corkscrew,  from
25  to  40  microns  long  and  about  i  in  width.  No  further  structure
is  evident.  It  takes  a  deep  chromatin  stain.  It  occurs  in  the  blood
only  during  the  febrile  paroxysms  of  this  disease.  Nothing  more  is
known  as  to  its  life  history,  but  it  is  certainly  a  filth  disease.  It  is
actively  motile,  with  a  rapid,  delicate,  wavy  motion,  stretching  and
collapsing  like  a  coiled  spring,  and  also  moving  slowly  along  among
the  corpuscles,  but  seeming  not  to  disturb  them  much.
They  appear  one  or  two  days  before  the  paroxysm,  at  first  few,
then  in  great  numbers,  sometimes  single,  some  twisted  into  snarls,
many  within  leucocytes,  at  the  end  they  disappear  until  the  next  parox-
ysm. The  fever  continues  about  six  days ;  the  intervals  are  of  about  the
same  length.
The  **  spores"  seen  in  the  plasma  during  the  intervals  are  of  doubt-
ful significance  (haemokonien  granules?).  The  organisms  can  be  seen
to  multiply  in  the  specimen,  also  to  die  and  to  break  up.
39


CHAPTER    VI
EXAMINATION    OF   VARIOUS   FLUIDS

Among  these  are  the  plasma,  serum,  lymph,  the  cerebrospinal,  the
various  transudates  and  exudates,  the  cystic  fluids,  the  synovial  and
amniotic  fluids.
Specific  Gravity. — This  may  be  determined  with  an  accurate  araeometer  (see
page  87).  Our  figures  given  in  the  following  pages  were  determined  gravi-
metrically.
