514 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



movement, and the melanin granules are frequently in a 

 state of tremor. Later on most of the parasites (now 

 schizonts) become divided into a variable number of 

 segments, which separate and become spherical, the blood- 

 corpuscle breaks down, the spherical bodies or spores are 

 set free, and a certain number of them, again becoming 

 attached to red corpuscles, develop into the first stage of 

 the parasite. The melanin granules and some of the 

 spores are ingested by phagocytes, and after some time the 

 melanin is deposited in the spleen and liver. 



The parasite, termed a plasmodium, or better, an amce- 

 bula, contains a vesicular nucleus and a nucleolus, and 

 the melanin granules are present in the surrounding proto- 

 plasm. When segmentation occurs, each segment contains 

 a portion of both the nucleolus and the protoplasm. The 

 maturation of each " brood " of parasites is coincident 

 with a fresh febrile paroxysm. In the subtertian (per- 

 nicious) forms of malarial fever there exist in the blood 

 for some time after the subsidence of the acute paroxysms 

 well-marked non-motile, crescentic or sausage-shaped 

 bodies, with rounded ends, the so-called " crescentic 

 bodies " or " crescents " ; their longer diameter is greater 

 (^) than that of a red corpuscle, their protoplasm is finely 

 granular, and contains at about the centre several well- 

 marked pigment-granules. In the crescentic forms the 

 extremities of the crescent often appear to be joined by a 

 delicate membrane (Fig. 64, / and j) ; this is the remains 

 of the blood- corpuscle in which the parasite has developed. 



When a " wet " specimen of malarial blood from a 

 case of pernicious or sub-tertian malaria is kept under 

 observation (p. 523), it not infrequently happens that 

 after a time the so-called flagellated " bodies " make their 

 appearance. These consist of a central protoplasmic mass 

 attached to which are from one to six delicate flagella 

 measuring 20-30 jm in length (Fig. 59, c). The flagella 



