664 townsend: asexual stages of verruga organism 



into a large number of minute elements each of which contains a 

 chromatin granule ; these become elongated and finally appear as 

 distinct rods containing at one end a minute particle of chroma- 

 tin."^ These ''spheres" are obviously an earlier stage of Mayer, 

 Rocha-Lima and Werner's ''Zelleinschliisse;" of this the writer 

 believes there can be no doubt. Figures 1 and 2, plate X, of 

 Strong et al. are early schizonts of the Bartonella and the same as 

 Gastiaburu and Rebagliati's eruption ''cuerpos;" corresponding 

 more or less nearly to 2a and 3a in Gonder's diagram of the life- 

 cycle of Lymphohaematocytozooii parvum,'' reproduced for purpose 

 of comparison by Strong et al. as figure 1, plate XL Figure 3, 

 plate X, of Strong et al. corresponds to Mayer, Rocha-Lima and 

 Werner's figures 1 to 4, and to Gastiaburu and Rebagliati's 

 liver ''cuerpos;" figures 4, 5, and 7, plate X, represent the elon- 

 gated stage of themerozoites, somewhat farther advanced than the 

 stage shown in figures 5 and 6 of Mayer et al., though signs of 

 elongation are apparent in the latter's figure 5. Strong et al. 

 add: "If these rod-shaped elements, which have been set free 

 by the rupture of the endothelial cells, are compared with the 

 rods found within red blood-corpuscles lying near, it is seen that 

 they are identical in character. Moreover they are entirely 

 similar to the forms already observed in the blood-cells in the 

 peripheral circulation."^ These ''rods" or "rod-shaped ele- 

 ments," prior to their penetration of the erythrocytes, are to be 

 considered as merely an advanced stage of the merozoites; im- 

 mediately after entering erythrocytes, and before completing 

 growth, they are to be considered as immature gametes, and are 

 the same as Darling's x-bodies. The work of Strong et al. has 

 thus resulted in establishing a definite connection between Bar- 

 ton's x-bodies, Darling's x-bodies, Gastiaburu and Rebagliati's 

 "cuerpos," and Mayer, Rocha-Lima and Werner's "Zellein- 

 schliisse," which was hitherto not apparent. 



All of these findings appear to indicate conclusively that the 

 Bartonella is a protozoan. Several facts, which are easily ex- 



«Rep. First Exped. So. Amer., Harv. Sch. Trop. Med., 33. 1915. 



7 Journ. Comp. Path, and Ther. 23: 32S. 1910. 



s Rep. First Exped. So. Amer., Harv. Sch. Trop. Med., 33. 1915. 



