294 BACILLI PATHOGENIC IN MAN. 



Attempts to observations, that malaria is caused by an organised 



recognise and . , . f . . . . i i T 



isolate the virus, capable of multiplying on dead nutrient substrata, 

 malaria numerous bacteriological investigations have been set 



on foot, the majority of which, however, have been too 

 Klebs' bacilli, much influenced by preconceived ideas. Thus Klebs and 

 Tommasi-Crudeli found bacilli in the marshy ground in a 

 malarial region, and described these organisms as "ma- 

 laria bacilli "; " rods 2 to 7 M. in length, which grow and 

 form convoluted threads; these either become segmented 

 by the appearance of clear intervals in their protoplasm, 

 more seldom by distinct divisions, and then ultimately 

 form, when exposed to the air, bundles of threads com- 

 posed of short segments, or they develop resting spores 

 in their interior either before or only after fission has 

 commenced. In the rods these spores appear either 

 at the centre, or at one end, or they may be both central 

 and terminal." These bacilli were cultivated in isinglass 

 jelly, in solutions of egg-albumen, in urine, &c. ; they 

 only grew in the presence of the air, and when they were 

 inoculated on rabbits they set up a febrile affection which 

 Klebs looked on as malaria. The statement with regard 

 to their morphological characters, the results of the 

 cultivations and the characters of the disease produced 

 in animals do not, however, furnish any sort of guarantee 

 that Klebs was dealing with pure cultivations of specific 

 bacilli, and not with other infective organisms of the 

 Bacilli in the soil. Shortly after this communication as to malaria 

 patients suf- bacilli, Cuboni and Marchiafava announced that they had 



maiafif r m found in tlie blood of P atients suffering from malaria, 

 and at the period of commencement of the fever, mobile, 

 short bacilli, usually containing spores at each end, and 

 on the whole corresponding with the bacilli obtained by 

 Klebs from the soil. Cuboni and Marchiafava, however, 

 also demonstrated the same bacilli in the blood of persons 

 not suffering from malaria, although in smaller numbers. 

 Then followed observations by Ziehl, who found bacilli 

 in the blood of three patients suffering from malaria, 

 the organisms being hammer- shaped, 4 /*. in length, 

 and '7 /*. in breadth, and with spontaneous movement ; 

 the author looked on these as identical with the reds 



