6io Microscopic Organisms tn Blood of Man and Animals. [part hi. 



Some years ago Auguste Rattig* described an "amoeboid" organism which he had 

 found in the blood of some frogs. Judging from the description and figures, it is 

 evidently identical with Lankester's Undnlina. Lieberkiihnf appears to have described a 

 somewhat similar protozoon in the frog's blood under the designation Amoeba rotatoria, 

 and which, according to "Waldeyer,J was named Trypanosoma sanguinis by Gruby. 



In the same paper Rattig describes another hsematozoon, which he had often seen 

 in the capillary vessels whilst examining the frog's mesentery during the months of 

 May and June ; they were of elliptical form and of granular aspect, with a length equal 

 to the long diameter of about 1^ of a frog's red blood-corpuscles. Channels with csecal 

 terminations could be distinguished in them ; these, however, disappear in the course 

 of a few hours, and thus the appearance of the animalculse becomes completely changed 

 (Fig. 57, a, b). They moved rapidly in the seram, propelled by means of cilia placed 

 along the dorsal aspect of the body, and it was observed that they could travel in both 

 directions of the blood-current. It would appear that these organisms were only found 

 in frogs obtained from certain localities. Occasionally specimens were observed which 



Fig. 57. — a, h, r, Changes undergone by a protozoon found in the blood of frogs in the course of a few 

 hours : Magnified 500 diameters. (After Rattig.) 



manifested a distinctly striated appearance, in which no canalicular system could be 

 distinguished, and whose movements were somewhat slower. These are considered to 

 be the same parasite as the last described, as occasionally this change of appearance has 

 been seen to take place during the time of observation (Fig. 57, c). 



Akin to the foregoing hsematozoa of the frog, though considerably larger, are those 

 which were described by Dr. Boyd Moss in 1871 as being found in the Ceylon red 

 deer (the Muntjac of India). § Dr. Moss speaks of them as oval, ciliated bodies, capable 

 of swimming actively in the serum, two or three being seen at a time in the field 

 of a g'^ objective. They are colourless and perfectly translucent ; and all present two 

 or three large ova-like spherical bodies " towards the posterior half, the remaining 

 portion being filled with small cells and granules." The anterior pointed half of the 



* "Ueber Parasiten des Froschblutes ;" Inaugural- Diss. Berlin, 1875. 



t Lieberkiihn : " Ueber Bewegungserscheinungen der Zellen ; " cited by Rattig, op. cit., p. 16. Vide also 

 Davaine's " Entoaoaires," II Edit., p. XVI (foot-note). 



J Virchow and Hirsch's Jahreghericht, vol. i, p. 96, 1875. 

 § Monthly Microscopical Journal, October 1871. 



