COCCIDIUM OVIFORME IN THE LIVER. 203 



enormous numbers, especially in the intestine and in the bile-ducts, 

 as extensively to destroy the epithelial cells, and produce pathological 

 changes of a very remarkable nature. Of all this family, Coccidium 

 oviforme, which we are about to describe, has been longest known 

 and most frequently observed, and is also the only one which has 

 hitherto been observed in man. 



COCCIDIUM OVIFORME, Leuckart. 



Kauffmann, " Analecta ad tuberculorum et entozoorum cognitionem," Dissert, inaug., 

 Berolini, 1857. 



Lieberkuhn, " Ueber die Psorospermien," Mutter's Archivf. Anat. u. Phys., p. 7, 1854. 



Idem, "Evolution des Gregarines," Mem. couronn. de VAcad. de Beige, loc. cit., pp. 

 26-34, 1855. 



Stieda, "Ueber die Psorospermien der Kaninchenleber und ihreEntwicklung," Archiv 

 f. pathol Anat., Bd. xxxii., p. 132, 1865. 



Keincke, "Nonnulla quaedam de psorospermiis cuniculi," Dissert, inaug., Berolini, 

 1866. 



Waldenbure, " Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Psorospermien," Archivf. pathol. 

 Anat., Bd. xl.,"p. 435, 1867. 



Kivolta, " Psorospermi e psorospermosi," Medico Veterinario Torino, t. iv., No. 2, 

 1869. 



Idem, " Dei parassiti vegetali," p. 381 et seq.: Torino, 1873. 



Egg-shaped bodies, 0'033 to 0'037 mm. long and 0'015 to 0'02 mm. 

 broad, with thick smooth shells, which have a micropylar opening at one 

 end, usually the narrower. The granular contents are sometimes uni- 

 formly distributed throughout the whole interior space, or sometimes, as 

 in the more globose forms, collected into a spherical mass (0*017 mm). 

 In this state the parasites pass from the liver and intestine ivhich they 

 inhabit to the exterior, there to undergo a further development in the 

 moist surroundings. The contents thereupon segregate into four oval 

 spores (0'012 mm. long, O'OOT mm. broad), which become surrounded with 

 a but slightly firm coat, and form each a single Q-shaped curved hyaline 

 rod, the concavity of which is occupied by closely packed granules. 



The liver of the rabbit (Fig. 107) is not unfrequently found pene- 

 trated with white nodules, which, in more or less considerable num- 

 bers, grow gradually to the size of a hazel-nut, and excite painful 

 affections, in the course of which the animal often dies. In many 

 warrens the disease becomes a serious epidemic, so that hardly a 

 single healthy animal is to be found. On section of the nodules a 

 cheesy or purulent, sometimes yellow-coloured, mass exudes, in 

 which a microscopic examination reveals, besides cell debris, a count- 

 less number of the above-described oval bodies. Since the same struc- 

 tures are also found at the same time in the gall-bladder, it may also 

 be concluded that the nodules are in association with the bile-duct. 



