FALLACIES AND I'CZZLES IN BLOOD EXAMINATION 



111 



(Fig. 28). They were somewhat smaller, having an average length of 16'5/:i and a breadth of 

 0-7^( but presented the same appearance, stained in the same way, and in some instances 

 showed the achromatic transverse bands which he mentions. From its shape 1 mentally 

 termed one variety the buffalo-horn type and I made drawings of the different forms 

 encountered. On April 18, 1909, I sent the slide to Dr. Wenyon, at the London School of 

 Tropical Medicine, with a note directing his attention to these curious parasites and stating 

 that, to me, they looked more like spirochaetes than anything else, but that I was unable to 

 classify them. Unfortunately, though my letter was safely delivered, the box containing 

 the slide was never seen again. Dr. Wenyon, however, wrote and told me that he had 

 come across similar forms in the blood of big game which had been shot, and recorded his 

 opinion that the forms in question were not blood parasites at all but were derived from 

 the intestine and had been carried into the exit wound by the bullet or by discharges 

 finding their way along the bullet track. One recognised the possibility of such an 





V 



X 2000 </in/n. 



Fjft. C';) — Spirochieta bovis caj/'ris, a. sp.. Nutt.-ill 

 a-ti S.iii-ocliietes showio§ v.iriiition in si/e bub unifoiixiicy ia (>b»pe 

 Whereas in (aj tlie paiafrittf shows no internal structure, in fdj and (c) 

 the chromatin occurs as flne dust tbroii^bout the faintly violet-blue 

 staining protoplasm. In (ti) there are achromatic transverse bands 



* X 'lOQQ ilium. ia/>J>ro.i-.t 



i'<e. 26. — tii>)rochaet« like bodies lound in the blood of a Jackson 

 hartebeeste. 



occurrence and the fallacies to which it might give rise, and, on meeting Captain Hadow, 

 I asked him if he remembered where the animal had been wounded. To the best of his 

 recollection, the bullet had passed through the neck, severing the gullet, and it is quite 

 possible that in the last throes stomach contents might have regurgitated through the 

 wound of exit. The presence of very thin thread-like spirochsete forms in the film and of 

 some bodies which suggested yeasts, made me refrain from publishing any account of the 

 case until I had more evidence regarding Dr. Wenyon's hypothesis. 



" Quite recently I received from Captain Cummins, S.M.O. Kordofan, a blood smear from 

 a goat which had died from infectious pleuro-pneumonia. He wrote to say that he had found 

 spirochgete-like bodies in the film and solicited my opinion about them. To my surprise, 

 on examining the specimen, I found my hartebeeste parasites or forms very closely 

 resembling them. I wrote to CajDtain Cummins mentioning the case of the hartebeeste and 

 the view of Dr. Wenyon, and asking him if the blood sent could have been contaminated 



