The modes of division of Spirochæta recurrentis and S. duttoni as observed in the living organisms

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The exact mode of division of Spirochætes is still a matter of controversy. Some workers, as Prowazek, and most of the German school of protozoologists, consider that Spirochætes divide longitudinally, while Novy, Swellengrebel, Laveran and Mesnil, and most French workers consider that they divide transversely. Unfortunately, the direction of division of Spirochætes has been made a criterion of their protozoal or bacterial nature. Too much stress appears, from this point of view, to have been laid on the mode of division in Spirochætes. Fantham (June, 1907, and January, 1908), in the case of Spirochæta balbianii and S. anodontæ, and Dutton and Todd (November, 1907), in the case of S. duttoni, state that both longitudinal and transverse divisions occur, while Breinl (November, 1907) figured (but did not describe in detail) both modes of division in S. duttoni. Fantham worked on both living and stained material. Miss Mackinnon (1909), working in the Quick Laboratory, has recently shown that both modes of division occur in S. recurrentis. We hope to show in this paper, from observations on the living organisms, that both methods of division certainly do occur in Spirochætes; also how these processes are brought about, and to put forward suggestions explaining the phenomena. The subject is one of great difficulty, and the intrinsic difficulty has not been lightened by the methods adopted by various investigators. Too much reliance has been placed on the examination of fixed and stained preparations of Spirochætes, to the exclusion of evidence which might have been derived from observation of the living organisms. It is only recently that the importance of observations of living material in protistology has been recognised, and even now it is not sufficiently appreciated.