PART III.] Hcsmatozoon of Healthy Frogs and Deer. 609 



in the blood without in any appreciable manner affecting the health of their host, and 

 when it is further considered that these organisms must consume at least as much, if 

 not far more, oxygen than bacteria, bacilli and spirilli, it becomes difficult to under- 

 stand how it comes about that to a like action on the part of the latter is ascribed 

 the asphyxia and the other morbid conditions which characterise death from splenic 

 disease and allied affections.* 



B.— Protozoa in the Blood of healthy Frogs, Deer, etc. 



Scarcely higher in the developmental scale is the protozoon described by Professor 

 Kay Lankester as being found in the blood of frogs.f These organisms were at first 

 taken by this distinguished observer to be exceptionally active white blood-corpuscles, 

 as they are but very little smaller than the red corpuscles of the frog's blood. Owing 

 to the protozoon's great activity there was some difficulty in making out the nature of 

 its locomotive organs until it had been killed by acetic acid vapour. It was seen to be a 

 pyriform sac, coarsely striated, and containing a pale, clear nucleus. One portion of the 

 sac is spread out into a broad thin membrane, which at one end produced a flagellum ; 

 the former undulates in a series of waves, which, 

 with the action of the flagellum, " tend to urge the 

 animal in a wide circle " (Fig. 56, a). 



Numerous oblong bodies (Fig. 56, 6) were also 

 noticed in the blood of one frog attached in many ^ 



cases to the end of the red blood-corpuscles. These, 

 it is considered, judging from their being associated 

 with the parasite, may be genetically connected 



with it. „ ^T , ,. , „ 



Fig. 56. — a, Undulina ranarum ; b, Minute 



Professor Lankester considers it -improbable that oblong bodies associated with it. 



this haematozoon has not been previously seen and (Magnified by Hartnack's No. X 



. 1 p . 11. objective. Original figure reduced to 



described. He speaks of it as a mouthless in- half size : After Lankester.) 



fusorian closely allied to the OpalinidcB, but posses- 



ing no cilia, the latter being replaced by an undulating membrane and a flagellum 



It is therefore believed to represent the type of a new group of infusoria, and is 



named Undulina ranarum. 



* M. Toussaint commences a recent paper, submitted to the French Academy, with these words : " Lea 

 experiences entreprises dans ces derniers temps ont d^montre que la bact^ridie est la cause du charbon, ' La 

 bacteridie provoque I'asphyxie en enlevant aux globules I'oxyg^ne n^cessaire k I'h^matose ; ' telle est la con- 

 clusion des experiences de MM. Pasteur et Joubert. Telle 6tait aussi I'explication que j'avais cru devoir de- 

 duire des faits contenus dans la Note que M. Bouley avait bien voulu presenter en mon nom a I'Acad^mie 

 le 14 ao&t dernier." — Comptes Rendus, t. Ixxxv, p. 1076 ; Dec. 3, 1877. 



On the other hand. Professor Virchow is unable to accept such a doctrine as is referred to by M. 

 Toussaint. In some experiments conducted with charbon-material by this celebrated pathologist it was found 

 (among other things) that the proportion of bacteridia present in the blood at autopsies bore no relation to 

 the severity of the disease, so that for this and other reasons Virchow came to the conclusion that the 

 special morbid material must be of the nature of a chemical poison. Op. cit., page 30. 



f Quarterly Jownal of Microscopical Science, vol. xi, p. 387 ; 1871. 



41 



