574 



NATURE 



[July 31, 19 13 



malaria the fever is very irregular, but continuous. 

 Whether there are three different parasites, or only 

 one, which is altered according to its environment of 

 host, climate, &c, is still apparently uncertain. 

 Laveran and Metchnikoff believe in the specific unity 

 of the parasite, whereas some observers want as many 

 as five different species. 



Just as in human malaria the pernicious form is 

 distinguished by the elongated form of its gametes, 

 so in birds there is a parasite which is distinguished, 

 in the same way, from Plasmodium praecox by its 

 very elongated gametes. This parasite is called 

 Haemoprotcus danilewski. Its development is un- 

 known ; it begins as a tiny, irregular body in the red 

 corpuscles of the bird, then it grows in the long axis 

 of the cell and turns round the end of the nucleus. 

 It is possible in these parasites to follow the process 

 of impregnation, which normally takes place in some 

 insect. By taking the blood when full of the long, 

 fully-grown gametocytes, and keeping it for a time 

 outside the body, this process can be followed. 



First of all, the gametocytes escape from the blood- 

 corpuscles and roll themselves up into a ball. Some 

 of these remain quiet — the females, curiously, the 

 macrogametocytes — whilst in the microgametocytes 

 active movements are seen ; then tailed processes are 

 seen projecting from its surface, which at last get free 

 and wander about in the blood, this constituting the 

 origin of the microgametes from the microgametocyte. 

 They then find a macrogamete, and penetrate into it 

 and fertilise it. This fertilised macrogamete then 

 alters its shape and becomes an ookinete, with the 

 remains attached containing the pigment. It may 

 enter a red corpuscle, but it usually breaks up, because 

 it finds it is not in the stomach of the insect it in- 

 tended to be in, but between two pieces of glass. 



From Haemoproteus it is easy to nass to a rare and 

 undetermined parasite of the blood of birds called a 

 Leucocytozoon. It occurs in the blood in the form 

 of a long', spindle-shaped, unpigmented body. Very 

 little is known of it except that it is found in its 

 sexual forms. The earliest observers of this parasite 

 — Danilewsky and Ziemann — believed the host-cell to 

 be a leucocyte (hence the name), but Laveran has 

 shown that it is a red corpuscle. 



We now come to a group of parasites of great 

 practical - importance, the Babesias, formerly called 

 Piroplasma, which are the cause of Texas fever or 

 red-water fever, malignant jaundice, East Coast fever, 

 and biliary fever amongst domestic animals. We 

 know, again, little that is certain concerning this 

 group, except that they are unpigmented parasites of 

 the red corpuscles, and are carried by ticks. They 

 are the most destructive to the blood of any we know. 

 In an ox, I have seen the red corpuscles decrease from 

 8,000,000 — the normal — to 56,000 per cubic millimetre 

 in two days. 



Another important group, the Leishmania, is still 

 uncertain of its exact position. In the body they 

 occur as small bodies with a nucleus and micro- 

 nucleus, but when cultivated on artificial media they 

 become flagellated organisms of herpetotomas type. 

 It is not quite certain what insect plays the part of 

 carrier, but the different varieties of this group cause 

 the diseases known as Kala Azar or tropical spheno- 

 megalv. Oriental sore, Delhi boil, Biskra boil, &c, 

 and also infantile splenic anaemia. 



The last class are the Haemogregarines. These are 

 Darasites of the red corpuscles of reptiles principally. 

 but they have been described in mammals and birds. 

 We only know certain stages of the greater part of 

 them ; thev are large, sausage-shaped bodies, not pig- 

 mented, and they are supposed to be carried by 

 leeches, ticks, lice, and fleas. They generally have 

 a capsule. In some instances the host-cell is enor- 

 NO. 2283, VOL. 91] 



mously enlarged and entirely dehaemoglobinised, but 

 in most cases the host-cell is not enlarged. 



I have now taken you over some examples of all 

 the known types of blood-parasites, but, at best, the 

 picture in your minds must be like that of a landscape 

 taken from a railway carriage at full speed ; and the 

 result, I fear, only a kind of clarified confusion, but it 

 will be something if I have succeeded in making it 

 transparent at the edges. What must have struck 

 you most is the smallness of our exact knowledge of 

 many of these extraordinary organisms and the gaps 

 that there are even in this. But the incitement to 

 future work lies in this fact, for 

 "Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



At University College, Reading, Mr. S. B. 

 McLaren, assistant lecturer in mathematics at Birm- 

 ingham University, has been appointed professor of 

 mathematics, and Mr. R. C. McLean lecturer in 

 botany. 



An article dealing w ith the number of students at 

 German universiti< - during the session 1912-13 is 

 contributed by Prof. Rudolf Tombo, junior, of Colum- 

 bia University, to the .issue of Science for July 18. 

 The total number of matriculated students was 

 58,844, and, including auditors, the total reached 

 64,590. Of the matriculated students 3213 were 

 women, of whom 904 attended the University of Ber- 

 lin. Of the male matriculated students 26,988 were 

 studying philosophy in the various universities. The 

 largest number of matriculated students, namely 9806, 

 was enrolled at Berlin. The Universities of Munich 

 and Leipzig had 6750 and 535! students respectively, 

 and Bonn 4179. There were sixteen other universities 

 with from one to three thousand matriculated 

 students. The largest enrolment of foreign students 

 was found at Berlin, where there were 1605, while 

 Leipzig, Munich, Halle, Heidelberg, and Konigsberg 

 had numbers from 784 in the first to 244 in the last- 

 mentioned case. Altogether there were 5193 matricu- 

 lated foreigners enrolled at the German universities ; 

 of these 464S were from Europe, 338 from America, 

 184 from Asia, twenty-two from Africa, and one from 

 Australia. Of the European countries, Russia had the 

 largest number of students, 2840, Austria had 900, 

 Switzerland 340, and Great Britain 145. 



The following announcements relating to the Impe- 

 rial College of Science and Technology, South Ken- 

 sington, have readied us : — Mr. Otto Beit has an- 

 nounced his intention to found three fellowships for 

 scientific research to be held at the college. Mr. 

 Beit's intention in founding these fellowships is to 

 foster onlv the highest research. The fellowships will 

 be limited to Europeans, men or women, who have 

 graduated at universities in the British Islands, Colo- 

 nies, and Dominions, or are recognised by the trustees 

 to be of the same standing. The annual value of each 

 fellowship is not to exceed 150?. — Prof. S. M. Dixon, 

 professor of civil engineering at the University of 

 Birmingham, has been appointed to the new chair in 

 civil engineering in the Citv and Guilds (Engineering) 

 College. The department in the City and Guilds 

 (Engineering) College which has hitherto covered the 

 subjects of civil and mechanical engineering will next 

 session be divided into two departments, one dealing 

 with mechanical engineering and motive power, under 

 Prof. Dalby. and the other with civil engineering, 

 including theory of structures, hydraulics and 

 hydraulic machinery, ferroconcrete construction, 

 dorks, water supply, and surveying, under Prof. 



