246 THE MICROSCOPE. 
LOO LOay .* 
Coccrpra In THE Renat Eprraenium or tHe Movuse.t—In ex- 
amining some mice which had died within two or three days follow- 
ing inoculation with hog cholera bacilli, Theobald Smith discovered 
thesomewhat rare parasitic protozoon, coccidia. The kidneys presented 
an abnormally pale, yellow appearance, and without doubt the degen- 
erated condition of these organs had greatly reduced the vitality of the 
mice and their resistance, which on an average continues from seven 
to ten days after inoculation, to the invasion of the pathogenic 
bacteria. Small portions of the kidney cortex, teased in salt solution, 
revealed large numbers of nearly round bodies, having a long diam- 
eter of about 16.2, and a short diameter of 12.6”, Hach body 
consisted of a cyst, the interior of which was densely packed with 
crescent-shaped bodies, evidently representing the final or spore 
state in the life of the micro parasite. The cyst wall was repre- 
sented optically by a narrow sharply defined dark line, and when 
crushed under the cover-glass in order to force out the contents, its 
shrunken remains appeared transparent and colorless. The cysts 
contained as nearly as could be ascertained, about twenty crescent- 
shaped bodies, filling out the entire cavity. In form, these cres- 
cent-shaped, or more properly falciform bodies, might be compared 
to bananas, having a little greater curvature than the average fruit 
of that name. Their two extremities were blunt and rounded. 
Their length was 7. Their greatest diameter 1.8“, The sub- 
stance composing them appeared homogeneous in the fresh condition. 
When packed away in the cyst, their long axes were in general parallel, 
so that their extremities came to lie at two opposite poles. These 
pore cysts were in part isolated, in part united into groups from 
several to twelve each, and surrounded by avery delicate line, 
which, in some cases, could be demonstrated’ as the attenuated peri- 
phery of the cell body. These groups, in other words, were con- 
tained ip large vacuoles formed in the protoplasm of the epithelial 
cells between the free border of the cells and their nucleus. None of 
the cells observed in the teased portions contained more than one 
vacuole. The wall of the vacuole either adhered snugly to the 
group of cysts, thus forming a rather irregular elongated sac, or the 
vacuole was spherical and but partly filled up by these cysts. 
*Under this heading will be included all Abstracts relating to the Embryology, Histo- 
logy, etc., of Vertebrates and Invertebrates. 
tJournal Comparative Medical and Surgical, July, 1889 p. 211. 
