318 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Sept. 



asites to infect many of those who drank of it was not 

 gi'eat. As a precaution the water could be filtered. The 

 author thoug-ht it would be undesirable, if practicable, to 

 kill the mother parasite in the patient's system, as this 

 would result in fatal abscess. 



Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of New York, mentioned a case 

 in which the filaria; were found in the blood both day and 

 nig-ht, but the}^ were always dead. 



Dr. Henry could offer no reason why the filariae should 

 have been dead unless compressed under the cover g-lass. 



Plasmodia Malaria. — Plasmodium malarial was first 

 discovered by Leveson, a French army surgeon, in 1880, 

 and after him Morcheafava, Celli, Golgi, Guarnieri, and 

 of America Councilman and Osier. They are most in uni- 

 son in their belief that a peculiar micro-organism is in the 

 blood in nearly all cases of malaria, and only peculiar to 

 that disease. 



The writer made his first attempt less than two years 

 ago to properly prepare a specimen for examination. I 

 met with failure in the start, but was rewarded in the end 

 by finding exactly what my superiors had intended to 

 teach me, so I endeavor to furnish the readers with my 

 method of procedure. 



According to my own experiments, and others, the 

 proper time to obtain the blood is about one hour after 

 temperature begins to rise. However, very beneficial 

 forms may be obtained after about four hours, but it seems 

 that the plasmodia are most plentiful when the tempera- 

 ture beg-ins to rise. 



After thoroughly cleaning the finger tip, the blood is with- 

 drawn by a small lancet or, better still, a surgeon's needle, 

 which of course should be sterile. The first drop should 

 be smeared with the needle over finger, which forms a se- 

 rum coat and a very small drop is then brought in contact 

 with the center of a slip which has been previously closed 

 in strong sulphuric acid for two hours. Wash in flowing- 

 water one hour or more, then place the slips in glacial 

 acetic acid for at least an hour. Wash in water as before 



