G6'8 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



frco from the disoaso by injecting blood which has been found to 

 contain tbo organism, into thoir veins, and subsequently verifying 

 tbe result after tbo onset of tbe intermittent fever. 



Tbo publication of tbe researcbes of Marcbiafava and Celli bas 

 provoked a reply from Prof. C. Tommasi-Crudeli,* who is of opinion 

 that they have mistaken for the cause of tbe alteration of tbo red 

 corpuscles, the effect of another cause. No pathologist, ho says, 

 would fail to recognizo in the alterations depicted by them a retro- 

 gressive metamorphosis of tbe red corpuscles, and no zoologist would 

 be ablo to recognize from these illustrations tbo progressive develop- 

 ment of an animal parasite ; while tbo breaking up which Prof. Golgi, 

 who has more recently corroborated tbo oxistence of tbe plasmodium 

 malaria;, calls segmentation, is cited as being tbe best of proofs of a 

 retrograde change. The illustrations of the plasmodium are, says 

 Tommasi-Crudeli, identical with tboso given by Eollett to show the 

 effect of an electric shock on the red corpuscle of a frog.f The 

 objections to the granules are that they do not move, and that they 

 have not been seen to develope into plasmodia. 



The extensive reasons offered against the plasmodium are that 

 hitherto no general progressive infections have been found to be caused 

 by animal parasites, but on the contrary by vegetable ones ; and, once 

 admit that malaria is due to a living organism, it follows that it 

 must be vegetable in nature, for how could an animal existence 

 survive through long periods of time, buried deep in the earth, 

 developing into activity as experience has shown of malaria frequently 

 by accident ? And yet we know that this bas happened over and over 

 again, even with vegetable organisms of much higher development 

 than the Schizomycetes. 



Prof. Tommasi-Crudeli finally confirms the opinion originally 

 promulgated by him, that the malarial ferment is a Schizomyceto 

 such as was described by himself and Klebs in 1879. 



Pneumococcus of the Horse.J — M. E. Perroncito investigated the 

 cause of "croupal pneumonia" in horses, and found in the diseased lung 

 (not, however, gangrenous) by means of sections stained with 1 per 

 cent, methyl-violet, large spherical or ovoid micrococci, sometimes 

 solitary or in twos, threes, and in even larger groups ; these were 

 frequently surrounded by a gelatinous capsule which does not stain. 

 These organisms are Bacterium pneumoniae cruposse ; their diameter is 

 about 1'5/a. 



He obtained cultures on gelatin, and inoculated rabbits, horses, 

 &c, which sooner or later died from lung disease, and from the lung 

 he obtained bacteria similar to those injected. 



From various experiments the author concludes that the pneumo- 

 coccus of the horse differs from that of man, (1) in that it is patho- 

 genic in rabbits and other animals ; (2) in that the methods used for 



* Atti R. Accad. Lincei, ii. (1886) pp. 223-7. 

 t Hermann's Physiologic, Bd. ii. Th. i. 

 \ Arch. Ital. Biol., vii. (1886) pp. 343-4. 



