INTERMITTENT FEVER. 329 



cells intervening between the lumen of the intes- 

 tine and of its capillary vessels is very feeble, or 

 quite lost. 



Finally. The writer's observations lead him to 

 be suspicious as regards the pathogenic role of or- 

 ganisms in the blood, which are few in number and 

 require diligent search for their demonstration. 

 And the possibilities of accidental contamination 

 are so great, when a drop of blood is drawn from 

 the body of a patient with the greatest possible 

 precautions, that the finding of a rod or of a 

 sphere supposed to be a bacillus or a micrococcus 

 requires verification by the finding of at least 

 several more rods or spheres of the same kind in 

 the same specimen ; and by the use of staining 

 reagents and the test of cultivation. 



A more recent discovery than the Bacillus mala- 

 rice of Klebs and Tommasi-Crudeli is the Oscillaria 

 malaria* of Laveran (1881). This discovery is also 

 confirmed by Richard. The first-named author 

 says : 



" There exist in the blood of patients attacked with 

 malarial fever pigmented parasitic elements, which pre- 

 sent themselves under three principal aspects. . . . 



" The parasitic elements are only found in the blood 

 of patients sick with malarial fever, and they disappear 

 when quinine is administered. 



" They are of the same nature as the pigmented 

 bodies which exist in great numbers in the vessels and 

 organs of patients dead with pernicious fever, and which 

 have heretofore been described as melanotic leuco- 

 cytes." 



