ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 659 



Professor Schnetzler has further successfully cultivated the 

 organized germs by means of a mixture of gelatine and distilled 

 water. Why do not these bacteria in the nasal cavity always multiply 

 and develope and penetrate to the windpipe and lungs ? Their 

 progress is doubtless opposed by the vibratory movements of cilia 

 in the air-passages, and the weakly alkaline reaction of the nasal 

 mucus may (it is also suggested) be unfavourable to some of them. 

 Cohn has proved that bacteria producing acid fermentation perish 

 in liquids with alkaline reaction. Infectious bacteria may, how- 

 ever, multiply to a formidable extent on living mucous surfaces ; 

 witness the growth of the micrococcus of diphtheria, brought by the air 

 into the air-passages ; also the bacterium of anthrax. The bacillus of 

 tubercle, as Koch has lately shown, may be transmitted from one 

 person to another by the air-passages. Professor Schnetzler thinks 

 hay fever may also be due to bacteria entering the nose. While the 

 development of bacteria on normal mucous surfaces is usually limited, 

 millions of them are found in the dejections of healthy children. 



Parasite of Malaria.* — From observations on a considerable 

 number of malaria-patients, M. Richard is able to state that in all cases 

 a specific organism is present. It inhabits and undergoes develop- 

 ment in the red corpuscles of the blood ; the first indication of its 

 presence within the corpuscle is a pale spot which grows and 

 developes black granules at its periphery ; it ultimately occupies the 

 whole interior of the corpuscle, and then it ejects a collar with dark 

 granules, and one or more delicate marginal processes ; this is the 

 parasite. It often oscillates with great energy for about an hour, 

 even when not quite free from its host. The collar breaks up and 

 sets free the granules which may be taken up by the white corpuscles. 

 The " body No. 1 " of Laveran appears to be a corpuscle containing a 

 parasite whose development has been arrested. The comatose stage 

 of the disease is produced by the blocking of the cerebral capillaries 

 by blood-corpuscles containing parasites, in which condition they 

 are very viscous and have lost their usual great elasticity. The 

 appearance of the corpuscle when affected appears to demonstrate 

 the existence of an investing membrane outside it. When the parasite 

 is not abundantly present, Richard uses acetic acid to destroy the 

 normal corpuscles, thus leaving the few affected ones readily 

 visible. 



Parasitic Character of Cases of Malaria.j — A. Laveran's account 

 of this matter should be compared with that of Richard given above. 

 He describes from the blood of malaria-patients three forms of 

 parasitic elements. 



1. Cylindrical bodies, with filamentous extremities, usually cres- 

 centic ; length 8-9 /x, diameter on an average 3/x. Contour marked 

 by a very fine line ; body transparent and colourless, except at the 

 middle, where there is a blackish spot composed of very dark red 



* Coinptes Kendus, xciv. (1SS2) pp. 496-9. 



t Ibid., xciii. (1881) pp. 627-30. Cf. Rev. Internat. Sci., iv. (1881) pp. 

 459-61. 



