Rockefeller University Digital Commons @ RU Harvey Society Lectures 1917 Hideyo Noguchi, 1916 The Rockefeller University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/harvey-lectures Recommended Citation The Rockefeller University, "Hideyo Noguchi, 1916" (1917). Harvey Society Lectures. 9. http://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/harvey-lectures/9 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ RU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Harvey Society Lectures by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ RU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ".c,.;.,.;_/ ' SJ>IROCHJETES * DR. HIDEYO NOGUCHI The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research 0-DAY a spirally shaped micro-organism may be called T either spirochreta, spirillum, treponenia, spironema, cristi spira or saprospira, according to the characteristics of· the organ ism. The choice of the generic name for a given variety is still very much dependent upon the indivi5lual views held by diffei"Bnt investigators, and this has led to a somewhat chaotic state of affairs in the nomenclatur� of this group of organisms. This is found to be the case more especially in the medical literature where these minute spiral organisms play an important part as causative agents of certain diseases. Nevertheless, thus far but little attention has been paid to the systematic position occupied by them. Since Ehren�erg 1 in 1838 introduced a new generic term "Spirochreta" to designate a free living spfral organism which he found in a swamp near Berlin, it remained practically unnoticed until 1904, when Schaudinn 2 stated as his view that certain spirochretes constitute a phase of the life cycle of trypanosomes; hence, that they are of protozoan origin instead of being plants.