SARCOSPORIDIA. 209 



Other, and then in several legs ; in the extirpated pieces oi muscles 

 sarcosporidiosis was found. Watson saw dejection, aimless walk- 

 ing about with slow, short step, swelling of the bones of the 

 skull. Sebrazes, Marchal. and Muratet noticed fibro-sarco- 

 matous swellings in the lower chest, and a considerable hard 

 swelling of the metacarpal bones, with the formation of nume- 

 rous exostoses ; further, progressive anaemia . emaciation leading 

 to cachexia, were noticed. According to AIcGowan. scrapie 

 would appear to be due to a mass infection with the Sarcocystis 

 tcnclla. Sarcocystis tcnclla may be present in lOO per cent, of 

 sheep ; in a large number of sheep this parasite does not increase 

 to any extent, and such sheep show no signs of disease (see 

 McGowan's statistics) ; but in a certain proportion the parasite 

 overruns the host. When this occurs, then, in his o]>inion. the 

 animal shows evidence of it by exhibiting the sym])t(«ms of 

 scrapie, in whole or in part. 



Cultivation of the Parasites. 



On this point there seems to be little or no information. 

 Piana left Sarcosporidia isolated from the muscular tissue in 

 sterile capsules with a little sterile water or gelatine prepared 

 with Fiicns crispus, according to the method of Celli and Fiocca, 

 for the culture of the Amoebae. The falciform corpuscles de- 

 composed and set at liberty little hyaline globules, which 

 gradually increased in volume and acquired a contractile nucleus. 

 They took Amoeboid forms, were motile for several days, then 

 encysted, and underwent a true encapsulation, and entered into a 

 state of latency. He observed these ])henomena to take place 

 in a space of 25 to 26 days. In 1912 Balfour took the Aleischer's 

 tubes from a gazelle, dipped them into spirit, then flamed and 

 transferred them to culture tubes of Nicolle's blood agar; the 

 cysts were then ruptured, thus seeding the medium Avith spores. 

 He also made broth cultures in the same w^ay, but was unable 

 to trace any development. Many of the spores seem to be 

 quite unchanged after 44 hours at a temperature of about 

 33° C. Some become spherical in the broth, and thus ob- 

 viously degenerate. The only point possibly w^orthy of note 

 was that in both lots of cultures a number of small hyaline 

 spherical bodies were found, many of which contained a dark 

 motile granule. These bodies did not take on the vital staining, 

 and he could come to no decision regarding them, though per- 

 haps they were very young spores. McGowan made attempts 

 to cultivate the sarcocyst in various media at different tempera- 

 tures aerobically and anaerobically. Media used were broth, 

 blood broth, ascetic fluid with fresh tissues, i per cent, glucose 

 water, i per cent, glucose ascetic fluid. In all media, with the 

 exception of those containing glucose, the sporozoites either 

 remained unchanged or degenerate. In i per cent, glucose 

 water, keeping it at room temperature for about three hours, 

 one. sees that every spore has undergone a change. The evo- 

 lution that takes place is as follows : A ripe normal sickle or 

 sporozoite shows slight enlargement, and later on a slight billge 



