PLASMODIUM MALARIA 



THE parasite of malaria was discovered by Laveran 

 in 1880, and his discovery has been confirmed by all 

 subsequent observations. The Plasmodium Malarias 

 is a parasite whose habitat is the red blood corpuscle. 

 It appears to be a protozoon, is placed by most 

 authorities among the Sporozoa, and is closely allied 

 to the Coccidia. It forms one of a group of similar 

 but distinct organisms found in other vertebrata, 

 and there are undoubted varieties, if not distinct 

 species, of the human plasmodia, each associated 

 with different clinical forms of the disease. The 

 physiology and life cycle of the plasmodium regu- 

 lates the phenomena of the disease, and the phases 

 of the parasite bear a definite relation to the phases 

 of the fever. The plasmodia have life cycles of 24, 

 48, and 72 hours, and give rise to quotidian, tertian, 

 and quartan fevers respectively. In their earliest 

 stages the parasites are found as small, pale, ill- 

 defined, amoeboid discs of protoplasm within the red 



