A MICRO-ORGANISM WHICH APPARENTLY HAS A SPECIFIC RELATIONSHIP TO ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER

Abstract

Since the spring and summer of 1906, bodies which I have referred to in my notes as "diplococcoid bodies," and sometimes short bacillary forms, have been found with considerable constancy in the blood of guinea-pigs and monkeys which were infected with Rocky Mountain spotted fever. They have also been seen in the blood of man but not so frequently. Much more time has been spent on the blood of the experimental animals than on that of man in view of the fact that it could always be obtained in fresh condition. The form most commonly found is that of two somewhat lanceolate chromatin-staining bodies, separated by a slight amount of eosin-staining substance. The preparations of Giemsa, as furnished by Grübler, has been used almost exclusively, and with variations in the technic the intermediate substance may stain faintly blue. In spite of the constancy with which these bodies were found, it