660 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



pigment-granules. A very fine line is sometimes observed at the 

 side of the cavity, and apparently serves to support the extremities 

 of the crescent-shaped body. No movements appear to take 

 place. The form is sometimes oval; and when it is but slightly 

 elongated and the granules arranged in a circle, it closely re- 

 sembles the other two forms. 2. Spherical transparent bodies, of 

 the average diameter of a red blood-corpuscle, with pigment-granules 

 often arranged in a circle when the body is inactive ; in movement, 

 they are agitated vigorously and become irregular in arrangement. 

 At the margins very delicate filaments, slightly inflated terminally, 

 often appear to be inserted ; they move rapidly in every direction ; 

 they have a length of from three to four diameters of a red 

 corpuscle ; three or four may occur upon one body ; they cause 

 an oscillation of the body, and displace adjacent blood-corpuscles. 

 They finally become detached from the spherical bodies, and 

 then range freely among the blood-corpuscles. 3. Spherical bodies 

 of irregular form, transparent or finely granular, 8-10 p in dia- 

 meter, containing rounded pigment-granules of a very dark red 

 colour, sometimes arranged regularly near the periphery, some- 

 times aggregated at the centre or near the periphery. They 

 are immobile, both as wholes and in their parts. They have 

 been observed to result from the transformation of the body No. 2, 

 and are probably the form which it takes at death. They have no 

 nuclei, and are with difficulty stained with carmine. 4. Spherical 

 transparent bodies like (2), but much smaller, viz. the smallest 

 scarcely the -^ of a red corpuscle in diameter, and containing 

 only one or two pigment-granules each ; the largest have almost 

 the diameter of a red corpuscle. They occur either free or 

 aggregated variously or attached to blood-corpuscles and appear to 

 represent a phase in the development of the above parasitic bodies. 

 Besides these four types, there occur red corpuscles exhibiting per- 

 forations and pigment-granules, dark leucocytes, and free pigment- 

 granules of various sizes. 



Out of ninety-two cases of palustric diseases of different kinds, 

 these parasitic elements were detected in forty-eight, and their 

 absence in many of the remaining ones may be due to the 

 action of sulphate of quinine which had been administered to 

 most of these, and which has been ascertained to have the power 

 of destroying the parasite in blood removed from the body. The 

 bodies cannot always be detected, they are most readily obtained just 

 before the attack of fever and at its termination ; in chronic cases, they 

 sometimes exist permanently in the blood. In the intervals between 

 the attacks they probably lie in the internal organs, especially the 

 spleen and liver. Pigment-bodies always occur in great numbers 

 in the blood, especially of the small splenic and hepatic vessels, of 

 subjects that have died of palustric affections. When death takes 

 place owing to accidental circumstances, the bodies are found in such 

 quantities in the blood as to tinge the spleen, liver, marrow of the 

 bones, and sometimes the grey matter of the brain, a brownish, quite 

 characteristic colour. Thus the dangerous symptoms of malarial 



