MALARIAL FEVERS 241 



of the malarial parasite exist, each having a dif- 

 ferent period of development. Blood drawn dur- 

 ing a febrile paroxysm shows the parasite in its 

 different stages of intra-corpuscular development. 

 The final result of this development is a segment- 

 ing body, having pigment granules at its centre, 

 which occupies the greater part of the interior 

 of the red blood corpuscle. The number of seg- 

 ments into which this body divides differs in the 

 different types of fever, and there are other points 

 of difference by which the several varieties may be 

 distinguished one from the other, but which it is not 

 necessary to mention at the present time. The im- 

 portant point is that the result of the segmentation 

 of the adult parasites contained in the red corpuscles 

 is the formation of a large number of spore-like 

 bodies, which are set free by the disintegration of 

 the remains of the blood corpuscles and which con- 

 stitute a new brood of reproductive elements, which 

 in their turn invade healthy blood corpuscles and 

 effect their destruction. This cycle of development, 

 without doubt, accounts for the periodicity of the 

 characteristic febrile paroxysms ; and, as stated, the 

 different varieties complete their cycle of develop- 

 ment in different periods of time, thus accounting 

 for the recurrence of the paroxysms at intervals of 

 forty-eight hours in one type of fever and of three 



