CYTORYCTES VARIOLA. 731 



Protozoon-like bodies have been seen by many cytoryctes 

 observers and were first brought into causal rela- p?otoooi* (?) 

 tion with smallpox by Van der Loeff and by L. 

 Pfieffer (1887). Guarnieri (1892), however, gave 

 the subject its present impetus by a careful study 

 of these forms as seen in vaccinia and gave to the 

 hypothetical organism the name of Cytoryctes vac- 

 cinice, s. variolce. The bodies were found within 

 the deep epithelial cells in the pustules of vaccinia 

 and smallpox and in the lesions produced on the 

 cornea of the rabbit by inoculation with the viruses 

 of vaccinia and smallpox. They lie within clear 

 spaces in the protoplasm of the cells, vary in size 

 from that of a micrococcus to that of an epithelial 

 nucleus and multiply, it was supposed, by binary 

 division. When mounted in hanging-drops of the 

 vesicular fluid they showed ameboid movements. 

 Confirmatory work came from others, and partic- 

 ularly Wasielewski, who concluded that the "vac- 

 cine bodies" are perfectly characteristic, that they 

 are never found in normal or other pathological 

 conditions of the skin, that they can not originate 

 from leucocytes or epithelial cells, and hence can 

 not be accidental "cell inclusions." Filtered virus 

 produced no lesions in the cornea of the rabbit. 



Kecently Councilman, Magrath and Brincker- J^iJcUman 

 hoff have studied this supposed organism in great and others. 

 detail and find, in addition to the forms in the cy- 

 toplasm (cytoplasmic parasites), still others within 

 the nucleus of the epithelial cells of the vesicles 

 and pustules. They express the belief that the or- 

 ganism first gains entrance to the cytoplasm of the 

 cells, and after a period of "multiplicative prolif- 

 eration," the products of the latter process pene- 

 trate the nuclei of the epithelial cells and there 



