272 



THE PATHOGENIC HEMOSPORIDIA 



with "Texas fever." These were so often found in pairs that the 

 specific name higeminum was given to them, while the new genus was 

 named pyrosoma. The latter name, however, having been long 

 used for a genus of tunicates, was changed to piroplasma by Patton 

 ('95), and is still widely used. Starcovici, however, in 1893, gave the 

 name babesia to a blood parasite of European cattle which Babes 

 first described in 1888 under the name of Heviatococcus bovis. This 

 organism appears to be the same as that found by Smith and Kilborne, 

 and if proved so by the full life history the organism of Texas fever 

 must have the specific name boius, while, since hematococcus is the 

 generic name of a phytoflagellate, Starcovici's name babesia must 

 supplant Patton's piroplasma. 



Fig. 107 



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^ 





* '0 



Stages in the development of Babesia canis. (After Kinoshita.) A, round discoid parasite 

 in a blood corpuscle; B, ameboid form with long processes; C, a pair of " mature gametes"; 

 D, a mature "female" gamete; E, a mature "male" gamete; F, a budding form in blood 

 corpuscle; G, a group of sixteen young "gametes." 



Subsequent observers have found babesia in many different animals. 

 R. Koch ('03) was sent by the German Government to investigate 

 a cattle disease which he called East Coast fever, in German East 

 Africa, and the organism causing it was named (piroplasma) Babesia 

 parvum by Theiler, in 1904. Babes ('92) discovered a blood parasite 

 in Roumanian sheep which he named Babesia oris; Plana and Galli 

 Valerio ('95) discovered a similar parasite in the blood of dogs, naming 

 it (piroplasma) Babesia canis; Gugliemi ('99) found a blood parasite 

 in horses, Laveran ('01) naming it (piroplasma) Babesia equi; Fan- 

 tham ('05) discovered one in the blood of rats and called it (piro- 

 plasma) Babesia miiris. Similar parasites have been found in monkeys 



