PBOCEEDINGS OF SECTION K. 723 



The other two Orangs died soon after arrival in Sydney, after 

 a short acute illness due apparently to errors in diet. Their blood 

 was carefully examined, but no chromatin bodies could be found. 

 The third Orang in which the bodies were found was ill at the 

 same time, but recovered after a radical change in diet. It died 

 flix months later. 'Post-mortem examination showed that the in- 

 testinal trouble had entirely disappeared. 



Conclusions. 



There are found in the red blood corpuscles of certain mammals 

 small spherical bodies which give the reactions of chromatin. It 

 is a debatable point as to whether these bodies are products of the 

 cell itself, or whether they are of a parasitic nature ? In the case 

 of those bodies found in the blood of cattle in South Africa, 

 Theiler, in his articles, shows that they can be transmitted from 

 animal to animal by artificial inoculation, and naturally, by 

 means of ticks. He therefore considered those bodies to be pro- 

 tozoa, and named them anaplasms. Since then, several observers 

 have found similar bodies in the blood of sheep, cats, donkeys, 

 &c., and have grouped them with the anaplasms. The grounds 

 given for so classifying them do not appear to be very strong. 

 The mere presence of spherical chromatin bodies in the erythro- 

 cytes of an animal, although morphologically similar to the ana- 

 plasms of Theiler, by no means of itself justifies a definite con- 

 clusion that they are parasites, and belong to that class of 

 organism. The fact that they are frequently present should, per- 

 haps, indicate the reverse. Neither is the disposition of the bodies 

 within the red corpuscle any proof of their parasitic nature. 

 Furthermore, the fact that dividing bodies may be encountered in 

 the erythrocytes is also insufficient to justify one in placing such 

 bodies with the anaplasms, because it is quite evident from exami- 

 nation of smears of bone marrow that portions of chromatin within 

 the red cell may further break up into smaller pieces in such a 

 way as to look like living bodies in the process of multiplication 

 by fission. 



On the other hand, what is the evidence in the case of those 

 animals discussed in this paper that the chromatin bodies present 

 in their red cells are not protozoa ? There are several points, 

 mostly of a negative character, but those bearing most strongly 

 against the parasitic view are that they can be demonstrated in very 

 young, and, in the case of the marsupials, very immature animals 

 born in captivity, and in which the probability of natural infection 

 is exceedingly remote. Also that by the examination of prepara- 

 tions from bone marrow from animals showing such bodies in their 

 circulating blood, one can observe their process of formation from 

 the breaking up of nuclei of the erythroblasts, or the splitting off 



