110 THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



white mice and monkeys, and with greater difficulty into dogs, while 

 L. liifantuin can be inoculated into several experimental animals, 

 especially into dogs and monkeys, with ease, (c) At present L. donovani 

 is not known to occur spontaneously in animals, jDiit L. infautuui is 

 found naturally in dogs in the Mediterranean region, and the disease in 

 clogs is often referred to as canine kala-azar. Kittens have occasionally 

 been found infected. However, these differences must not be empha- 

 sized too much. 



The material for cultivation is obtained from punctures of spleen, 

 liver or bone-marrow of cases infected with L. infanhim. It is not 

 always easy, however, to infect from cultures, as the cultural flagellates 

 inoculated into the body are often phagocytosed. 



Similarly, the material for animal inoculation is obtained from 

 emulsions of infected spleen, liver or bone-marrow. Dogs and 

 monkeys are easily inoculated with such material ; Nicolle inoculates 

 into the liver or the peritoneal cavity. Mice, white rats, guinea-pigs 

 and rabbits only show slight infections after such inoculations. 



Dogs infected experimentally with infantile leishmaniasis may 

 show either acute or chronic symptoms. The acute course occurs 

 more often in young dogs, and is usually fatal in three to five months. 

 The chronic course is found more commonly in older dogs, and may 

 last seventeen to eighteen months. In acute forms there is irregular 

 fever, progressive wasting, diarrhoea occasionally, motor disturbances 

 involving the hind quarters, and the animal dies in a comatose con- 

 dition. In the chronic form the animal may appear well, except for 

 loss of weight. The parasites may be found in the internal organs of 

 these experimental dogs, but are not numerous in the peripheral 

 blood except at times of high fever. Experimental monkeys live about 

 three months. 



It may be interesting to record the number of dogs found to be 

 infected naturally with leishmaniasis in various countries. In Tunis, 

 Nicolle and Yakimoff found about 2 per cent, infected out of about 

 500 dogs examined. Sergent in Algiers found 9 infected out of 125 

 dogs examined. In Italy and Sicily, Basile found about 40 per cent, 

 of the dogs to be infected out of 93 examined at Rome and 

 Bordonaro. Cardamitis found 15 infected out of 184 examined in 

 Athens. In Malta, Critien found 3 infected out of 30 dogs examined. 

 Alvares found i infected dog out of 19 examined in Lisbon. Pringault 

 has recently (December, 1913) found an infected dog in Marseilles. 1 

 Yakimoff and Schokhor found 24 per cent, infected out of 647 dogs 

 examined in Turkestan. 



The distribution of the parasites in the body of the human patient 

 is much the same as in the case of Indian kala-azar. Critien records 



1 Bull. Soc. Path. Exot., vii, p. 41. 



