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III. — Rxmaiozoa in Blood of Ceylon Deer. 

 By Boyd Moss, M.D. 



Plate XCIX. 



About two years since, while examining the blood of various 

 animals, I had one day a specimen of that of a Ceylon red deer 

 (the Muntjac of India) under the microscope. To my great 

 astonishment I saw vigorously swimming across the field several 

 oval ciliated bodies, such as I have represented in Fig. 1 in the 

 accompanying Plate. The front pointed half of the body was 

 covered with cilia in active motion, and as it swam forward through 

 the mass of red blood corpuscles, it was impossible to avoid com- 

 paring it to a steam vessel forcing its way through a crowd of small 

 boats. The specimen of blood had been taken about three-quarters 

 of an hour after the death of the animal, while it was still wann — 

 from a wound made by a bullet which had passed through the hver, 

 and I thought it possible that the entozoa came from that organ, 

 but on a careful examination of its substance none of them were 

 found. I had no fm'ther opportunity of looking for their bodies 

 for ten or eleven months, when I procured another red deer. 

 About half an hour after death I placed a drop of the warm blood 

 with which the cavity of the abdomen was filled (in opening the 

 animal), under the microscope, and there again was the same 

 curious sight of these entozoa swimming actively across the field. 

 There were generally two or three to be seen at once when using 

 Smith and Beck's ith objective. They lived under the thin glass 

 cover for about an hour. I now carefully removed the heart of the 

 deer, closing the aorta, as I cut it, with my fingers, and then 

 squeezed out a drop of blood from the ventricle on to a slide; this 

 again presented the same appearance, proving that the entozoa did 

 not come from the cavity of the abdomen. A month or two later 

 I examined the blood of another Muntjac, with similar results. 

 Now, these bodies are of course far too large to pass through the 

 capillaries, and must evidently inhabit the heart and larger vessels, 

 and I had hoped before this to have been able more thoroughly to 

 investigate the matter, and therefore delayed sending this communi- 

 cation to the ' Microscopical Journal,' but I have as yet had no 

 further chances, and the above must be taken quantum valeat for 

 the present. The appearance Fig. 2 in the Plate is that presented 

 in all cases by the Heematozoa about twenty-four hours after death. 

 When the drop of blood still remained partly fluid beneath the 

 glass cover, they showed three curious bands, which much resemble 

 muscular fibre, but which are not visible during life. They (the 

 bodies themselves) have no colour, being perfectly translucent; a 

 distinct double membrane is to be seen round them. They all 



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