212 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1025 



accuracy, completeness and utility of the il- 

 lustrations to the clinician and practitioner, 

 the broad biological conception underlying the 

 treatment, combine to characterize the work as 

 the best iconography of parasitology as yet 

 published. 



Charles A. Kofoid 

 Universitt of Calipoknia 



THE RELATION BETWEEN LIZARDS AND 



PELEBOTOMVS VEBBUCARUM AS 



INDICATING TEE BESEBVOIB 



OF VEBBUGA 



It affords the writer much satisfaction to 

 record another confirmation of the intimate 

 relation which exists between Phlehotomus 

 and lizards or other reptiles the world over. 

 Many cases of this relation have been recorded 

 in the recent literature, and the same appears 

 to hold good in Peru. 



Numerous blood smears made during the 

 past two or three months from small rock liz- 

 ards of several species collected at Verrugas 

 Canyon, Surco, San Bartholome and Chosica 

 Canyon all show rod and granule bodies which 

 exhibit the identical morphology of the bodies 

 that have been named Bartonia hacilliformis. 

 Their agTcement with the latter in shapes, 

 sizes, colors and apparent structure is so faith- 

 ful as to defy distinction. The lizards con- 

 cerned have been sent in for identification. 



It is to be noted that the first three localities 

 above mentioned are well within the limits of 

 the verruga zone of the Rimac Valley, while 

 Chosica Canyon is just outside that zone. 

 Lizard blood smears made in Chosica Canyon 

 in June, 1913, and again recently all show 

 these bodies, but the granules seem to predom- 

 inate greatly in the blood of the lizards from 

 outside the verruga zone and from points 

 within the zone where the lizards are not ex- 

 posed to the constant attacks of the Phlebo- 

 tomus. 



In Verrugas Canyon there are, close to the 

 house, many large walls built of loose rock 

 wherein the Phlehotomus hide in swarms dur- 

 ing the day, issuing in the evening to enter the 

 house and bite the inmates. These rook walls 

 are also inhabited by the small lizards in ques- 



tion. Smears of blood made from lizards from 

 these walls show a great predominance of the 

 rods over the granules. These lizards are ex- 

 posed to the constant attacks of the Phleho- 

 tomus every day in the year. 



The writer has found the same bodies in 

 smears made from the Phlehotomus at Ver- 

 rugas Canyon, which also show the nucleated 

 red corpuscles of the lizards as well as mam- 

 malian erythrocytes. The same rods and gran- 

 ules have furthermore been found by the writer 

 in microtome sections of human verruga 

 papules, in similar sections of papules pro- 

 duced in his laboratory animals by injections 

 of the Phlehotomus, and in the blood of these 

 animals prior to the eruption. 



Blood smears of a young guinea-pig taken 

 631 hours, and later, after injection subcuta- 

 neously with a very small quantity of citrated 

 lizard blood from Chosica Canyon have shown 

 the typical granules and Bartonia rods in the 

 disks of the erythrocytes. This pig died nine 

 days after injection, after irregular rises of 

 temperature, and its autopsy blood and femoral 

 marrow showed a large increase of the bodies, 

 principally granules but also short rods. 



Subcutaneous injection of a second young 

 guinea-pig with a larger quantity of citrated 

 lizard blood from Surco proved fatal within 

 ten hours, liver smears showing the rods and 

 granules, but blood, marrow and spleen smears 

 proving practically negative. JFurther experi- 

 ments of a similar nature are under way. The 

 three-cornered connection, however, between 

 lizards, Phlehotomus and verruga appears to 

 be already well established by these data. 



It is seen from the results that this possible 

 reservoir of verruga in the lizards is not con- 

 fined to the verruga zones, which are limited 

 by the occurrence of the Phlehotomus, but may 

 exceed the latter in range. This explains how 

 fluctuations in occurrence of the Phlehotom,us 

 may result in extensions or retractions of the 

 verruga zones, the gnats finding the infection 

 at hand on gaining a new locality. 



It also seems indicated by the above results 

 that the verruga organism must exist in the 

 infective stage in the lizard blood and does not 

 apparently demand the medium of the Phleho- 



