512 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



In man, coccidial disease has been described (but rarely) in the 

 liver, gall-bladder, ureter, etc. 1 



Rixford and Gilchrist 2 described two cases of protozoan infection 

 of the skin and organs, accompanied by great destruction of tissue 

 and ending in death. The organisms were spherical, 1 to 21 p 

 diameter, surrounded by a thick capsule, enclosing granular bioplasm 

 (C. immitis). 



The Ruffer-Plimmer bodies of cancer were at one time believed 

 to be coccidia (p. 554). 



The term " psorospermosis " has been applied to human infection 

 with coccidium, Sarcosporidia (p. 532), etc. 



Examination 



(1) The coccidial forms are readily examined in the fresh state- 

 The only bodies they are likely to be mistaken for are certain ova. 



(2) Paraffin sections of rabbit's liver containing coccidia may 

 be stained much in the same way as tuberculous tissues viz. warm 

 carbol-fuchsin ten minutes, decolorise cautiously in 5 per cent, 

 acid, and counter-stain in methylene-blue. Sections may also be 

 stained in the Ehrlich-Biondi stain for one to two hours. 



Order. Haemosporidia 



The general characters of this group are : 



(1) Life at the expense of the red blood-corpuscles, at least 

 during a portion of the life-cycle. 



(2) Endogenous multiplication by spores, by which the life- 

 cycle is repeated within the host. 



(3) Development of a form which becomes free in the plasma, 

 and which is the commencement of a sexual cycle to be completed 

 in a second host. 



(4) Inoculability, but only from one animal to another of the 

 same species. 



The group includes the malaria parasite and similar parasites in 

 mammals and birds, the haemogregarines, Drepanidium of the 

 frog, and perhaps the Piroplasmata. 



1 Journ. Comp. Path, and Bact., 1898, June, p. 171. 



2 Johns Hopkins Hosp. Reps., vol. i, 1896, p. 209. 



