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 fat-granules 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 PentrllUmn (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. 



from culture-cell containing 

 blood of yellow fever patient. X 200. 

 (From photo -micrograph, Havana, 

 1879.) 



