492 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



and endothelial cells. The bodies are small (2-3 //), round, 

 ovoid, or oat-shaped masses of protoplasm, apparently 

 encapsuled, and contain two chromatin masses, one large 

 and oval, staining pale red with Leishman's stain, the 

 other small and rod-shaped, and staining deep red with 

 Leishman (Fig. 56, a). They sometimes occur in masses 

 (Fig. 56, c). Leishman considered the bodies to be degene- 

 rate trypanosomes, but the organism is now considered 



FIG. 56. a. The Leishman-Donovan body. b. The flagellated 

 form developing in citrated blood, c. Seven parasites in a 

 farge mononuclear leucocyte. (After James. Patton, and 

 Rogers.) 



to belong to a distinct genus, and is termed Leishmania 

 Donovani. Rogers succeeded in cultivating it in citrated 

 blood at 20-25 C., in which it develops into a flagellated 

 form like Herpetomonas (Fig. 56, 6). 1 The parasite is not 

 inoculable into animals, and it is probably transmitted 

 to man by a bug (? a Conorhinus). 



The bodies are well shown in smears stained with the 

 Leishman stain. 



In Oriental sore, or Delhi boil, a parasite practically 

 identical with the Leishman-Donovan body is present, 

 but as the two diseases run a totally different course, it is 



1 Brit. Med. Journ., 1907, vol. i, p. 427 et seg. 



