5i8 MALARIAL FEVER. 



then undergo segmentation, i.e., sporulation, but not all of 

 them do so ; many become degenerated and ultimately 

 break down. 



3. Segmentation or Sporulation Forms. In the process 

 of segmentation or sporulation, the pigment becomes col- 

 lected into a small central mass, and from it as a centre, 

 lines radiate outwards and divide the protoplasm into 

 regular segments (Fig. 121). In this way a characteristic 

 appearance is produced which has given the name of 

 " rosette form " to this stage. The segments or spores 

 thus formed vary in number and also in size, in different 

 types of fever. They become more or less rounded in 

 shape and are set free in the blood plasma. The pigment 

 granules remain apart from the spores, sometimes sur- 

 rounded by a portion of the substance of the parasite, and 

 are chiefly taken up by leucocytes. The process of 

 segmentation, however, does not occur in all forms of 

 malarial fever in this radiate fashion, but in some takes 

 place more or less irregularly. 



4. Peculiar forms are those known as crescents or 

 crescentic bodies. These are non-amoeboid, and of cres- 

 centic or sausage shape, usually measuring 8 to 9 //, in 

 length. Occasionally a fine curved line is seen joining the 

 extremities on their concave aspect, which probably re- 

 presents the remains of the envelope of a red corpuscle 

 (Fig. 123). They are colourless and transparent, have a 

 clistinct enclosing membrane, and usually show a small 

 collection of granular pigment about their middle. Man- 

 naberg's view regarding the origin of the crescentic bodies 

 is that they are conjugation-forms, resulting from the fusion 

 of two intra-corpuscular bodies. He gives to them the 

 name of " syzygies." Of this view Surgeon-Major Ross 

 supplies important confirmation by actually tracing the 

 process of conjugation in the infection of birds by a closely 

 similar protozoon, the proteosoma. Bodies of the crescent 

 series are not found in all the types of malarial fever, but 

 especially in the quotidian and malignant types, and 

 apparently do not represent a stage in the ordinary cycle 



