MALARIAL FEVERS 239 



have suffered repeated attacks of intermittent fever. 

 The enormous loss of red blood corpuscles as a 

 result of such attacks is shown by the anaemic con- 

 dition of the patient and also by actual enumeration. 

 According to Kelsch, a patient of vigorous constitu- 

 tion in the first four days of a quotidian intermittent 

 fever, or a remittent of first invasion, may suffer a 

 loss of 2,000,000 of red blood corpuscles per cubic 

 millimetre of blood, and in certain cases a loss of 

 1,000,000 has been verified at the end of twenty-four 

 hours. In cases of intermittent fever having a dura- 

 tion of twenty to thirty days the number of red 

 blood cells may be reduced from the normal, which 

 is about 5,000,000 per cubic millimetre, to 1,000,000 

 or even less. 



In view of this destruction of the red blood cells 

 and the demonstrated fact that a certain number 

 at least are destroyed during the febrile parox- 

 ysms by a blood parasite which invades the cells 

 and grows at the expense of the contained haemo- 

 globin, it may be thought that the causal relation 

 of the parasite should be conceded. But scien- 

 tific conservatism demands more than this and the 

 final proof has been afforded by the experiments 

 of Gerhardt and of Marchiafava and Celli since 

 confirmed by many others. This proof consists in 

 the experimental inoculation of healthy individuals 



