796 Piroplasmos.i.s ot Dogs. 



entirely. If tlie trypan blue is applied 24 hours after artificial 

 infection the affection is aborted. The treatment has only this- 

 disadvantage that by these remedies the skin and the mucous 

 membranes become strongly colored for a time, and that a 

 painful swelling develops at the point of injection, which some- 

 times also results in abscess formation. 



The recovery is of course hastened by good nourishment 

 and careful nursing. 



The authors iiientioiied obtained negative results from treatment with hydro- 

 chlorate of quinine, tartarus stibiatus, methylene blue, B- naphthilamin, adrenalin, 

 arsazetin and soamin. Gender also obtained unsatisfactory results from atoxyl. 

 Holterliach recommends damholid (20% solution, tablespoonful doses), without 

 however jiroving the nature of the disease in the recovered patients by the demon- 

 stration of parasites in the blood. Stahn observed the recovery of a dog from 

 treatment with potassium arsenate. 



Immunization. According to the investigations of Noeard & Motas, 

 dogs which have recovered from the disease are still immune against a 

 virulent infection after six months. Blood from such animals destroys 

 the piroplasma, as a subcutaneous injection of a mixture of virulent 

 blood and 3-5 times the quantity of blood serum proves entirely inef- 

 fective. The action of such serum may be increased by inoculating the 

 recovered dog several times with blood containing the parasites. Serum 

 of such hyperimmunized animals protects in quantities of 3-5 cc, against 

 the pathogenic action of 3-5 drops of virulent blood, which otherwise 

 produces a fatal infection in 5-6 days. Twenty cc. of serum even renders 

 ineffective an infection undertaken 24-42 hours previously. If, however, 

 parasites have alread^y appeared in the blood the serum treatment no 

 longer produces any results. Heating the serum to 56°-57° C. for 

 half an hour, destroys its parasiticidal action but does not influence its 

 protective properties. Theiler confirmed the immunizing action of the 

 blood serum of immune dogs; he found however that blood from which 

 such serum separates is virulent for young dogs, when fresh or defibri- 

 nated, and therefore contains parasites, but by the addition of serum 

 of the same serum-producing dog, it loses its pathogenic action. 



Literature. Piana & Galli-Valerio, II. mod. Zooiatrio, lS9.o. 165. — Hutcheou, 

 The Yet.-J., 1899. XLIX. 398. — Marehoux. Soc. biol.. 1900. 97. — Noeard & 

 Motas A. P., 1902. 2.57. — Lounsbiiry, J. of comp. Path., 1904. XVII. 113. — 

 Wetzl. Z. f. Tm., 1906. X. 369 (Lit.). — Kleine, Z. f. Hyg., 1906. LIV. 11. - 

 Kinoshita, A. f. Protk., 1907. VII. H. 2. — Christophers, Brit. med. J.. 1907: J. of 

 comp. Path., 1907. XX. 17.5. — Nuttall & Graham Smith, J. of Hyg., 1907. V. 232. 

 — Nr.ttall & Hadwen, Parasitology, 1909. H. 156. 



Piroplasma in Man. Leishman (1900) and later Donovan (1903) 

 found in the vicinity of Calcutta, in the blood of persons affected with 

 febrile manifestations double nuclear bodies which resembled the piro- 

 plasma of cattle, also in leucocytes and in the tissue fluids of the bone 

 marrow and the spleen, more rarely also in the blood. These have since 

 been recognized as the Leishman-Donovan bodies, (Leishmania s. 

 Piroplasma Donovani), producers of the tropical splenomegaly, a febrile 

 cachexia, which in India is known under the name Kala Azar) (=Black 

 disease), and occurs also in China, North Africa and Arabia. Their 

 classification has recently again become questionable, as Rogers & 



