LEISHMANIA TROPICA IQJ 



some difficulty into experimental animals in India, white rats, white 

 mice, dogs and monkeys (Macacns spp.), have been inoculated. The 

 Sudan variety, somewhat less virulent, is inoculable to monkeys. Row 

 also produced a local lesion in Macacus sinicns by subcutaneous inocu- 

 lation of L. donovani. Parasites taken from such a local lesion were 

 found to be capable of producing a generalised infection in Macacus 

 sinicns and white mice. 



In cultures the various species of Leishmania all grow into 

 herpetomonad, uniflagellate organisms (fig. 50, zo), about 12 //< to 20 //, 

 in body length. On this account Rogers 1 and Patton place the 

 Leishman-Donovan body within the genus Herpetomonas. The 

 method of culture may be used in diagnosing leishmaniases. 



Kala-azar is very probably an insect- borne disease. Patton 2 sus- 

 pects the bed-bug to be the transmitter and finds (fig. 50, 4-6) that the 

 Leishman-Donovan body can develop into the flagellate stage in the 

 digestive tract of the bed-bug. Feeding experiments are unsatisfactory, 

 since there are very few cases in which the parasites occur in sufficient 

 numbers in the peripheral blood to make the infection of the insect 

 possible, or at any rate easy. In examining the alimentary tracts of 

 insects for possible flagellate stages of Leishmania, it must be remem- 

 bered that in many insects natural flagellate parasites, belonging to the 

 genus Herpetomonas, may occur therein ; such natural insect flagellates 

 may be harmless, and have no connection with the life-cycle of 

 L. donovani. Natural herpetomonads are known to occur in the 

 alimentary tracts of flies, mosquitoes, sand-flies, fleas and lice, but 

 not in bed-bugs. Further, if such flagellates are able to be inoculated 

 into and live within vertebrate hosts, producing symptoms like those 

 of leishmaniasis, the origin of kala-azar is indicated (see pp. 104, 112). 



Leishmania tropica, Wright, 1903. 



Syn. : Helcosoma tropicum, Wright, 1903 ; L. wrighti, Nicolle, 1908; Ovoplasma 

 orientale, Marzinowsky and Bogrow. 



It is believed by some that the parasite was first described by Cunningham in 

 1885, and studied by Firth in 1891, being called by him Sporozoon furunculosum. 

 If these earlier studies were of the parasite, then its correct name is L. furunculosa, 

 Firth, 1891. 



The benign disease produced by this parasite has received many 

 names, among the best known being Oriental sore, Tropical sore, 

 Delhi boil and Aleppo button. These names, however, are not happy 

 ones, as cutaneous leishmaniasis (e.g., on the ear) is now known to 

 occur in the New World, for example in Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil 

 and neighbouring States. However, it may be necessary to subdivide 

 cutaneous leishmaniases later. 



1 Proc. Roy. Soc., B, Ixxvii, p. 284. 2 Sci. Mem, Gcvt. India, Nos. 27, 31 (1907-08). 



