562 Microscopic Organisms in Blood and their Relation to Disease, [part hi. 



on the circumstance that certain changes take place in the masses when a saline solution 

 (2 o^ I P^'^ cent.) or fresh serum is added to them, and the preparation kept at a 

 temperature of about 37*^ C. Along the margins of the masses (which previously 

 presented a tolerably even appearance) there gradually appear fine projections " which 

 may be either perfectly straight or each may present an oval swelling (Fig. 36, B). 

 These projecting filaments soon present a waving motion and finally break off from 

 the mass, moving away free in the fluid, and in a short time the whole area for some 

 distance from the margins is alive with moving forms (Fig. 36, C). . . . The variety 

 of forms increases as the development goes on; and whereas, at first, spermatozoon- 

 like or spindle-shaped corpuscles were almost exclusively to be seen, later more irregular 

 forms appear, possessing two, three, or even more, tail-like processes of extreme delicacy. 

 The more active ones wander towards the periphery, pass out of the field, and become 

 lost among the blood-corpuscles. The process reaches its height within 2^ hours, and 

 from this time begins almost imperceptibly to decline ; the area about the mass is 

 less densely occupied by the moving forms and by degrees becomes clearer, till at 

 last, after six or seven hours (often less), scarcely an element is to be seen in the field, 

 ^ud a granular body, in which a few corpuscles yet exist, is all that remains of the mass." 

 xii 1872, Dr. Douglas Cunningham and myself described and figured somewhat similar 

 masses in connection with a description of the changes undergone by the blood in 

 cholera,* but we did not notice anything to suggest that the molecular and filamentous 

 particles manifested independent movements. 



It is possible that the bodies described by Dr. Osier may ultimately prove to be 

 closely related to those which were described by MM. Bdchamp and Estor in 1869 

 and termed Microzyma sanguinis. In that year these distinguished savants announced 

 to the French Academy f that, as the result of numerous observations, they had ascer- 

 tained that the blood of all animals contained an infinite number of mobile molecules. 

 These were found to be particularly plentiful in the blood of very young animals and 

 especially in blood which yielded a small proportion of fibrine. These microzymse, on 

 being added to starch or to cane sugar, etc., and placed under suitable conditions as 

 to temperature and so forth, set up fermentation, and, in doing so, gradually became 

 transformed into beaded, filamentous, stellate bodies, and bacteroid rods : the last named 

 were seen to become detached from a heap of such rods and to move in a characteristic 

 manner. They continued to multiply so long as sufficient nourishment remained in 

 the fluid. Moreover, they were described as retaining their vitality after prolonged 

 boiling in creosoted distilled water. Somewhat similar mobile bodies were described 

 by Medsvetzki a few years later and named hcemococci.X 



* A Report of Microscopical and Physiological Researches : Appendix A., Eighth Annual Report of the 

 Sanitary Commisgioner with tlie Government of India, and reprinted in this volume, p. 65. 

 t Comptes Rendus, t. Ixix, p. 713. 

 J Schmidt's JahrbUeher, vol. clix, p. 181. 



