536 



Malaria 



boid action becomes less marked, and the parasites (now 

 three-quarters the size of the enlarged pale and misshapen 

 corpuscles in which they are contained) appear as irregular, 

 ragged, protoplasmic bodies filled with fine pigment granules. 

 In about forty-five hours they completely fill the enlarged 

 corpuscles, and begin to gather their protoplasm into rounded 

 formations in which the pigment is no longer distributed, 

 but occurs in irregular stripes or gathers together into a 

 rounded clump. In a couple of hours the blood-corpuscle 

 has disappeared and the rounded parasite, larger than 

 normal red corpuscles, with a tabulated surface, and with its 

 pigment granules collected to form one or two rounded 



Q& 



Fig. 177. Fig. 178. 



Figs. 177, 178. Gametocytes of plasmodium vivax: 87, The micro- 

 gametocyte; 88, the macrogametocyte (Kolle and Wassermann). 



masses, is seen to have reached the stage of the meroblast. 

 This does not form the rosette or " daisy-head " shown by 

 the quartan parasite, but might better be compared to a 

 mulberry, and eventuates in the formation of from fifteen 

 to twenty-five small, rounded or ovoid, pale, unpigmented 

 bodies, the merozoits or spores. These become freed from 

 the pigment and attached to new red corpuscles, in which 

 they are easily recognized as the " tiny rings " that begin the 

 schizogonic cycle. The gametocytes of the tertian parasite, 

 the " free spheres," as they are sometimes called, are large, 

 rounded or slightly ovoid bodies, with a uniformly dull 

 bluish-gray or grayish-green protoplasm, in the interior of 

 which there is always a circular or semicircular area periph- 

 erally or centrally situated, and colorless. Except in this 



