IN LEUCAEMIA IO3 



IN LEUCAEMIA. 



According to Lowit 1 two different species of haemamceba occur 

 in the leucocytes in leucaemia Hcemamceba magna in myelaemia, 

 and H. vivax, later termed H. parva, and still later H. intranu- 

 clearis, in lymphaemia ; occasionally mixed infections have been 

 observed. The disease is transmissible to rabbits, in which as a 

 rule it takes a chronic course ; and this infection can be trans- 

 ferred from animal to animal. Although the author describes 

 stages of schizogony, and recently has also reported a sexual 

 propagation of the parasites in the same host, the parasitical 

 nature of the bodies observed is, to say the least, doubtful. Turk 2 

 considers them to be artificial products. 



THE H^MOSPORIDIA IN BIRDS, REPTILES, AMPHIBIA AND FISHES. 



It is well known that amongst birds a large number of species belonging to 

 the most different families, and inhabiting various parts of the earth, harbour 

 hsemosporidia. Hitherto the life-history of Plasmodium prcecox, Gr. and 

 Fel. (= Hcsmoproteus 'Danilewskyi, Kruse ; = Proteosoma Grassii, Labbe), lias 

 been the best investigated. The presence of this parasite in the blood 

 of birds causes an elevation of temperature of i-i'5. It is worthy of 

 note that schizogony, which occupies four or five days, is accomplished 

 in two ways : in the one there are only six to seven merozoies arranged 

 in a rosette shape, in the next the schizonts are considerably larger and 

 divide into very numerous merozoies. Ross was the first to establish the 

 fact that mosquitoes of the genus Culex are the hosts of this parasite 

 in Europe, Culex pipiens, L., and C. nemorosus, Meig., and in India 

 C. fatigans, Wied. Within the body of the mosquito copulation and sporo- 

 gony are accomplished in a manner similar to that of the malaria plas- 

 modia of man within Anopheles. By means of the bite of the mosquito 

 the sporozoies collected in the tubules of the salivary glands pass into 

 the blood of the bird. The infection is particularly dangerous to nestlings, 

 and also to older birds during moulting. 



Halteridium Danilewskyi (Gr. et Fel.) is a second species likewise found 

 in numerous kinds of birds, but which does not affect the host to the 

 extent of the first-named species. The mature schizonts are of a dumb- 

 bell shape, and the merozoies, for the development of which about a 

 week is necessary, are grouped like rosettes or morulae at the two thickened 

 extremities. The microgametocytes are also dumb-bell-shaped. The further 

 development is still little known, but mosquitoes of the genus Culex are 

 likewise the hosts of this parasite. 



1 Lowit, M., " Die AetioL d. Leukaemie " (C. f. B., P. u. I., 1899 [i], xxv., p. 503) ; 

 " Weitere Unters. ub. d. Paras, d. Leuk." (ibid., 1900, xxvii., p. 503) ; Die Leukaemie 

 als Protozoen-Infection, Wiesbaden, 1900. 



2 Turk, " Ueb. d. Htemamceben Lowit' s im Blute Leukaemischer " (Med. Woche., 

 1900, No. 18, p. 173). 



