APPENDIX 



A NOTE ON MOLLUSCUM CONTAGIOSUM 



THIS disease has been referred to several times in the foregoing pages. It 

 will have full consideration at a later time. Here I wish to indicate 

 briefly what kind of confirmation I have had of the phenomenon referred 

 to in Chapter I. of this book. Working at different times with material 

 kindly supplied by my friends, Drs. J. H. Stowers, P. Abraham, and 

 Travers-Smith, I have on one occasion observed a streaming movement 

 in the centre of a typical molluscum corpuscle. The appearance was one 

 that I have seen only in living protoplasm. It is a confirmation of the 

 view I hold that these inert and apparently typically degenerated bodies 

 are protozoa. Among other observations of this same affection I will 

 mention only one that I have observed on two occasions. Material kept 

 at a temperature varying from 30 to 37 C. in tap-water, and examined 

 under T V-inch oil-immersion lens, showed considerable numbers of round 

 bodies, varying in size from one-half to twice that of a blood-corpuscle. 

 They showed the same streaming that I have referred to above as having 

 occurred in the molluscum body, but the bodies I refer to now are not fully 

 formed molluscum bodies ; moreover slight alterations in shape show them 

 to be in a plastic state. A thin bright seam of protoplasm (ectosarc) is 

 not affected by the streaming movement. These bodies, which could only 

 be protozoa, were not seen after the fourth day. In all probability they 

 represent a stage in the life of the same protozoon as the typical molluscum 

 body. After addition of glycerine and water with 2 per cent, of formalin 

 they remain as bright globes of homogeneous appearance. 



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