Malaria 9 1 



probably a certain amount of poison set Tree from 

 the broken corpuscle when the young amebulae, now 

 called spores when outside the corpuscle, break 

 loose; the amebula being supposed to produce a 

 toxin while eating the contents of the corpuscle, 

 this poison consisting of the waste products of the 

 amebula's digestion. This toxin, when set free in 

 the blood, affects the temperature, the result being 

 a chill. Now is the time for quinine. There is no 

 corpuscle wall to protect the spores, they are free in 

 the blood serum, and thus the drug has the best 

 effect. 



If no medicine is given, the spores simply go on 

 invading more corpuscles, developing into amebulae 

 and again sporulating, the victim meanwhile becom- 

 ing worse. But the process of reproduction by spores 

 cannot go on indefinitely. After a time some of the 

 amebulae take on another form, that of the "crescent" 

 or " gamete," very marked in the estivo-autumnal 

 malaria. This process is thought to commence in the 

 bone-marrow and internal organs. 



Some of these gametes, somewhat larger than the 

 rest, develop small threadlike bodies, which break 

 loose and swarm freely through the blood. These 

 are the male elements, or microgametes. Wriggling 

 through the serum, these come into contact and unite 

 with other gametes (macrogametes), the female 

 elements, which have produced no flagellae. This 

 conjunction is fertilisation. But the union never 

 takes place while the blood is within the human body, 

 only after it has been removed. Otherwise the gam- 

 etes may persist indefinitely in an inert form in the 



