162 THE BLOOD IN INTEKMITTENT FEVERS. [BOOK I. 



Intermittent Fevers. 



There is primarily no chemical change in the blood in these fevers, 

 as is shewn by the observations of Andral and Gavarret and of MM. 

 Leonard and Foley, who studied intermittent fevers in Algeria 1 . 

 According to the latter observers, especially, whatever the type of the 

 intermittent, there is primarily no alteration in the blood, and no 

 perceptible difference between the condition of the blood taken during 

 an ague fit and that taken in the period of intermission. As the 

 disease advances, however, the patient becomes anaemic, the blood- 

 corpuscles and the solid matters of the serum diminishing in quantity. 



Bacillus Klebs and Tommasi-Crudeli 2 have made the re- 



Maiariae. markable discovery that the soil in malarial districts 



contains a bacillus to which they have given the name of Bacillus 

 Malariae, which when introduced into the system of rabbits induces 

 fever of an intermittent type. They have succeeded in cultivating 

 this organism, which by cultivation loses none of its specific power. 

 In the animals in which intermittent fever was thus artificially 

 induced, the spleen became enlarged and in its juice, as also in the 

 blood, were usually found the spores of B. Malariae, and sometimes 

 the rod-like forms of the mature organism. 



Since the above observations were first published, Marchiafava 3 

 has in three fatal cases of pernicious malarial fever succeeded in 

 discovering in the splenic pulp, in the blood, and in the marrow of the 

 bones, spores and filaments of B. Malariae. 



Pigment in In severe forms of intermittent fever particles of 



the blood. black pigment have been found in the blood, and 



accumulations of such masses have been seen after death in and 

 around the smaller blood-vessels and capillaries in the brain, liver, 

 and spleen, and, according to Arnstein 4 , in the medulla of the bones. 



The pigment occurs in the form of smaller or larger granules, and 

 is found either free in the blood or contained in the white blood- 

 corpuscles. 



oval, boat-shaped, bodies with a spiny projection at the anterior end. The embryo 

 (as seen in the urine occasionally) is ciliated and flask-shaped. 



Filaria sanguinis hominis (Lewis), a minute nematoid entozoon, is found in the 

 urine and also in the blood of . patients suffering from chyluria. The disease is 

 endemic in India, but some cases have also been observed by Dr Bancroft in 

 Australia. 



The filaria is a long narrow worm about the breadth of a red blood-corpuscle and 

 about 0-033 mm. long, it has a hyaline tubular envelope closed at both ends ; under 

 a high power transverse striae and granular masses are seen. When examined in the 

 fresh state it shews active snake-like movements. 



1 Leonard et Foley, quoted by Bequerel et Eodier, Op. cit., p. 132. 



2 Edwin Klebs e Corrado Tommasi-Crudeli, "Studi sulla natura della Malaria." 

 JReale Accademia dei Lincei, Roma, 1879. (Memorie della classe di scienze fisiche, 

 matematiche e naturali. Serie 3. Vol. iv. Seduta del 1 giugno 1879.) 



3 Dr Ettore Marchiafava, quoted by Klebs and Tommasi-Crudeli, op. cit. p. 61. 



4 Arnstein, "Bemerkungen tiber Melanamie und Melanose." Virchow's Arch. Vol. 

 LXI. p. 494. 





