426 



BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



the leucocytes, and representing a fatty degenera- 

 tion of their protoplasm, but possibly picked up 

 from the blood. In the white corpuscle in the 

 centre of Fig. 2 it will be noticed that these gran- 

 ules are of various sizes, and that they do not so 

 closely resemble bacillus spores. The conviction 

 that they were really fatrgranules was not reached, 

 however, until after a protracted study of yellow 

 fever blood, enclosed in germ-proof culture-cells, 

 which admitted of frequent microscopical exami- 

 nation of their contents. In these cells no evidence 



was obtained that these 

 granules increase by fis- 

 sion or grow into rods, 

 as we should expect if 

 they were reproductive 

 bodies. On the other 

 hand, they increased in 

 size, became diffluent, 

 and after a time the leu- 

 cocyte presented the ap- 

 pearance of having been 

 resolved into a little 

 collection of oil glo- 

 bules. 



The inference that the species of Penicillium (see 

 Fig. 27) which not infrequently appeared in my 

 culture-cells was developed from air-borne spores 

 which accidentally fell upon the drop of blood 

 during the brief period required for hermetically 

 enclosing it, and not from spores present in the 



Fig 27. 



Penicillinm from culture-cell containing 

 blood of yellow fever patient. X 200. 

 (Prom photo -micrograph, Havana, 

 1879.) 



