ETIOLOGY 255 



Numerous coarse granules, less frequently fat globules, are 

 embedded in its protoplasm. 



Smith believed from the results of his investigations that 

 the parasite lived in the interstices and lymph spaces of the 

 tissue, but not within cells. This seems certainly true of the 

 ctecum. In the liver, the liver cells seem to become necrotic 

 or else disappear so rapidly that it is impossible to determine 

 just where the parasites begin to multiply. They do not live 

 within the blood vessels, as they are not found within them 

 excepting perhaps in a thrombosed vessel. They must, there- 

 fore, occupy the place of the liver cells. It is probable that 

 they begin to multiply in the connective tissue adjoining the 

 blood vessel and simply crowd out the liver cells, leaving the 

 connective tissue stroma of the lobules in whose meshes they 

 are found. 



Their presence within giant cells is seen in almost every 

 infected organ subject to examination. In teased preparations 

 of the fresh tissues they are frequently found with remnants of 

 the inclosing cells still attached. This intracellular condition 

 is, however, a purely passive one so far as the parasite is 

 concerned. 



The raicroparasites within the tissues of the host seem to 

 tend toward destruction. Both the death of the tissue itself 

 and the repair seem to lead to the disappearance of the para- 

 sites. In most cases there may be seen in the same section 

 a partial dissolution of some of the bodies, while others are 

 still in good preservation. Evidently their life within the 

 tissues is not very long. 



A discharge of the microparasites which escape destruc- 

 tion probably takes place from the walls of the caeca, when 

 these break down into the contents with which they are carried 

 outward. A similar discharge may take place from the liver 

 through the bile ducts into the intestine. Anpther way of 

 dissemination is in the death of the diseased turkey and the dis- 

 solution of its body whereby the organisms are set free. The 

 occurrence of amoebae in intestinal affections of man was noticed 

 by Losch in 1875. Since that time it has been the subject of 

 many investigations. 



