GENUS: LEISHMANIA 397 



as belonging to the genus Leishmania was Cunningham (1885) in India, 

 who described " Peculiar Parasitic Organisms in the Tissue of a Specimen 

 of Delhi Boil." The parasitic organisms referred to were the large macro- 

 phages which were supposed to be amoebae, while the leishmania within 

 them were regarded as spores. Firth (1891), who made similar observa- 

 tions, proposed the name Sporozoa furunculosa for the large cells containing 

 the spores. As the name was given primarily to the supposed amoeboid 

 forms which are now known to be tissue cells. Firth's name cannot be 

 employed for the parasites. 



Leishmania were next seen and recorded by Marchand (1904) in the 

 spleen of a Chinaman who had died in Germany. A demonstration was 

 given before the Leipzig Medical Society on February 3, 1903. This 

 observer inclined to the view that the bodies within the large cells were 

 degeneration products of nuclei. On May 30, 1903, appeared Leishman's 

 paper on " The Possibility of the Occurrence of Trypanosomiasis in 

 India," wherein he described the parasites which he had found three 

 years before in cases of dum-dum fever. He recognized their resem- 

 blance to the round forms which occurred in trypanosome infections. On 

 July 11 of the same year Donovan (1903) recorded the presence of the 

 same parasites in this disease. Laveran and Mesnil (1903, 1903a) examined 

 some of Donovan's films, and, owing to the scarcity of the parasites 

 and the fact that many appeared adherent to red blood-corpuscles, they 

 regarded them as piroplasmata, and proposed the name Piroplasma dono- 

 vani (November 3, 1903). Koss came to the conclusion that the organism 

 was a Sporozoon, and suggested the name Leishmania (November 14 and 

 28, 1903). The name for the organism of kala azar is, therefore, Leishmania 

 donovani (Laveran and Mesnil, 1903). In March, 1904, appeared Bentley's 

 announcement of the discovery of the organism in cases of kala azar. 

 Nicolle (1908) gave the name Leishmania infantum to the parasite causing 

 kala azar in the Mediterranean area. 



Wright (December, 1903) described a similar organism from a case of 

 oriental sore in an Armenian child wdio had been brought to Boston. He 

 proposed the name Helcosoma tropicum for the parasite, which he con- 

 sidered to be a Protozoon allied to the Microsporidia. Marzinowsky and 

 BogrofE (1904) in Russia discovered the organism in a sore on a boy who 

 had resided in Persia, and proposed the name Ovoplasma orientale. Sub- 

 sequent investigations have shown that the organism is morphologically 

 indistinguishable from that of kala azar, and must be included in the same 

 genus. The correct name for the parasite of oriental sore is Leishmania 

 tropica (Wright, 1903). Eogers (1904) made the important discovery 

 that flagellates developed in sodium citrate solution to which spleen pulp 

 containing L. donovani had been added. At first he regarded them as 



