REPORT OF TRAVEIil.INO PATHOLOGIST AND PKOTOZOOI,OGIST 
163 
arranged at the centre of the parasite. One of these granules is markedly larger than the 
others.. It may lie in the centre of the smaller granules or may be separated from them. It is 
probably a karyosome, and the separation of this karyosome from the rest of the nucleus may 
be a stage in a maturation process. In the male gametocyte the chromatin granules of the 
nucleus are as a rule much more scattered through the cell, and there is no granule which 
stands out clearly as the karyosome of the female gametocyte. The karyosome of the female 
gametocyte suggests the micronucleus of a trypanosome, and when this karyosome is separated 
from the rest of the nucleus the resemblance is still more marked. There is nothing, 
however, to support this view or to show that this is more than a chance resemblance. 
Together with the two forms which have just been described as male and female 
gametocytes there occur also in the blood much smaller forms (tigs. 5, 6, !), 13), which 
possibly are young gametocytes. Careful search through many films made from large 
numbers of guinea fowls, and examination of the blood of the same birds from day to day, 
have not revealed any asexual multiplication forms any more than similar search for the 
asexual forms of Halteridium has resulted in the discovery of the asexual forms of this 
parasite. In Plate XX., figs, c, c', d and e, of his account, Neave reproduces what he calls 
various stages of division. There can be no doubt that these are merely deformed parasites, 
and do not represent division stages, as I have pointed out aliove. Schaudinn explains the 
absence of division forms by supposing that the parasite escapes from the cell and becomes a 
trypanosome, and that asexual reproduction proceeds only in the trypanosome stage. In 
the case of the guinea fowl parasite there is nothing to uphold this assumption. In some of the 
smaller forms appearances as sliown in figs. II and 14 are seen. Pig. II can easily be 
interpreted as a double infection, and fig. 14 as another case of the same kind where the line 
of demarcation between the two parasites is not clearly defined. It would appear, then, that 
in the peripheral blood, as in the case of Halteridium, no asexually reproducing forms are 
encountered. As this parasite so closely resembles Halteridium, it is probable that the forms 
in the blood are young or fully developed gametocytes, and that the asexual reproduction is 
to be sought for in the internal organs, and will possibly be of the same kind as the recently 
discovered asexual reproduction of the Ilaltcrklium of the pigeon (Aragao). Examination of 
the internal organs of the guinea fowl has revealed nothing, but it would be necessary to 
inoculate uninfected guinea fowls and to study the early stages of infection, when asexual 
reproduction would be proceeding rapidly. I inoculated domestic fowls and other birds with 
guinea fowl blood, but obtained no results. 
In the description of the parasite of the grey hawk, Dutton, Todd and Tohey lay much 
stress upon the development of wdrat they call the “ line.” They have traced its development 
from a granule in the nucleus. Appearances like those represented in their figures I have 
met with in the case of the guinea fowl parasite. Sometimes some of the chromatin is 
arranged as a short line, but, though I have examined a large number of slides, I have not 
been able to trace out anything like the development given by these observers. It is a 
significant fact that, in the greater proportion of their figures illustrating this development, 
the parasites are much distorted. In the development of the “ line ” it is finally traced on 
to what these observers call the ectoplasm, which, as we have seen, is not part of the parasite, 
but merely the host-cell. In this case at any rate the “line ” cannot be part of the parasite, 
unless we conclude that it has been thrown out from the body of the parasite. But it is 
probable that several appearances have been confused and together described as the “ line.” 
I have mentioned the fact that the chromatin of the nucleus may sometimes be arranged 
in a line and the karyosome itself may he elongated. This would correspond with the earlier 
stages of development of the “ line.” In many of the guinea fowl parasites the margin 
round the parasite stains a deep red like the staining of the chromatin. This appears in 
No asexual 
mulliplicalion 
forms dis¬ 
covered in the 
peripheral 
blood 
Appearances 
in the stained 
blood, the 
so-called 
“ line " 
