392 RESEARCH IN PROTOZOOLOGY 



SPECIFIC PROBLEMS FOR INVESTIGATION 



A. Drug Therapy. It would be desirable to find: 



1. A drug which would sterilize an infected bird completely, 

 for such a drug would probably be of value in treating human 

 malaria. 



2. Drugs which would have a beneficial effect on the disease, even 

 though this effect fell short of sterilization. Such drugs would 

 be likely to add to the effectiveness of present methods of 

 treatment. 



3. Substances which would decrease the proportion of asexual 

 forms to gametocytes. If such an effect could be made marked 

 enough it would affect the course of the disease very favor- 

 ably as far as the individual was concerned, and isolation 

 would safeguard the health of others. 



4. Compounds which would act selectively on the gametocytes. 

 Such drugs would be likely to be valuable in the treatment 

 of human malaria, for if they exerted an effect of this kind 

 it would help solve the carrier problem. 



5. Exactly how the useful compounds which we already have 

 exert their beneficial effect. Do they act upon the host or upon 

 the parasite, or do they act in both ways ? And in either case, 

 to just what is the effect due? e.g., Is the rate of oxidation 

 of the parasite ahered? Are the red cells made impermeable 

 to the young merozoites after liberation from the previous 

 host cell? 



6 At exactly what stage in the asexual portion of the life cycle 

 are the parasites most vulnerable to the effective drugs which 

 we now have? 



7. A drug which when administered to the patient would render 

 the sexual portion of the life cycle impossible of development 

 in the body of a mosquito subsequently biting the patient. 



8. By bird experimentation, whether there is any difference in 

 the efficacy of a drug when administered by varying routes. 



9. Whether either quinine or plasmochin ever stir up relapses 

 in latent cases of avian malaria, as salvarsan is said to in 

 human malaria, by the production of a kind of a Herxheimer 

 reaction. 



10. To try salvarsan and its near relatives on the four known 

 species of bird malaria, to see whether it exerted any effect. 



