THE PARASITE OF REDWATER 177 



The parasite concerned with " Texas fever " or 

 " redwater " of cattle is a small oval or pear-shaped 

 organism (Fig. 35) living within the red cells of the 

 blood. Some of these pearlike or pyriform bodies 

 become free in the blood-stream, but after a short 

 time, they approach new and uninfected red cor- 

 puscles, moving with their blunt end first. They 

 press themselves against the walls of the blood- 

 corpuscles, which become indented. Little by little 

 the parasites disappear from view, and when com- 

 pletely inside, the outlines of the corpuscles are 

 restored. Each parasite grows a little, and then 

 becomes ready for multiplication. At this time it is 

 pear-shaped (Fig. 35, A, B), and contains a dense mass 

 of chromatin forming the nucleus, occasionally a so- 

 called blepharoplast, and a loose mass of chromatin. 

 The parasite next becomes rounded, and then amoe- 

 boid, when it wanders actively about the interior of 

 the blood-corpuscle. After this motile period it again 

 becomes rounded (Fig. 36, A), and then protrudes 

 two bud-like processes (Fig. 36, J5), which grow 

 rapidly, and ultimately form two pear-shaped masses 

 (Fig. 36, C) attached together by the shrunken re- 

 mains of their parent. 



When the parasite becomes rounded, the two 

 chromatin masses mentioned above gradually unite, 

 only to divide again into a Y-shaped mass. Each 

 of the arms of the Y gradually extends into one of 

 the buds (Fig. 36, B, C), which are still connected, 

 and this peculiar method of division is often termed 

 gemmation and chromatin forking. Finally, the thin 

 strand that connects the two pyriform buds breaks, 



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