Malaria 93 



blood. If the removal has been by the bite of any 

 insect whatever, the conjugation of the micro- and 

 macrogametes will occur, but unless the blood has 

 entered the stomach of an Anopheles mosquito, the 

 development will cease here. 



Supposing the Anopheles has been the biter, the 

 result of the union is the vermicule (ookinet), a worm- 

 like thing which penetrates into the wall of the mos- 

 quito's stomach — no doubt a most uncomfortable 

 process for the insect. Under the thin outer muscular 

 layer of the stomach these vermicules locate and grow 

 at a rapid rate, distending the peritoneal (outer) sur- 

 face of the stomach as they increase in size, soon 

 becoming plainly visible under the microscope. The 

 nucleus of the amphiont, as the body is now called, 

 next begins to divide and, as occurred in the division 

 of the nucleus of the amebula, each nucleus takes for 

 its portion a mass of protoplasm, stellate this time, 

 and goes on splitting up until the final result is a great 

 mass of nuclei (each nucleus the centre of a rod- 

 shaped body, the sporozoit), which lies in bundles in 

 the amphiont. Then the capsule of the amphiont rup- 

 tures and the sporozoits, io,coo or more, escape into 

 the body cavity of the infested insect and make their 

 way to the cells of the salivary glands. Thence 

 they go with the saliva into the first person whom 

 Madame Anopheles bites, and, unless the victim has a 

 good resistance, they seek for a blood corpuscle, 

 seize upon it and recommence the life cycle as ame- 

 bulae, just the same as did the spores. There is a 

 certain amount of evidence to indicate that a gamete 

 in the blood may retrograde and give rise directly 



