1098 PROF. E. A. MINCHIN ON [Dec. 10, 



3. On a Hgemogregarine from the Blood of a Himalayan 

 Lizard (Agama tuberculata) . By E. A. MmcHix. M.A., 

 F.Z.S. 



[Received November 15, 1907.] 



(Plates LV. & LYl.) 



The material upon which the following description is based 

 consists of four slides, bearing smears of the blood of the common 

 rock-lizard of the Himalayas, which were prepared and sent to 

 me from Kasauli by Lt.-Col. F. Wyville-Thomson, I. M.S., to 

 whom my best thanks are due for his kindness in sending me the 

 specimens and entrusting me with the description of them. I 

 shall refer to the slides by the letters A-D. An examination of 

 the slides shows at once that they fall into two pairs, A and B 

 being one pair, C and D the other. While the parasites are very 

 similar, both as regards structure and occurrence, in both the 

 slides of each pair, those of one pair are so difierent from those 

 found in the other pair of slides that they might easily be taken 

 for distinct species of parasites. At this distance from the habitat 

 of the host and its parasite, and with limited material at my 

 disposal, I can only record these differences, and cannot attemj)t 

 to explain them. 



Prejxiration of the Slides. — Slide A, alone of the four, was sent 

 to me unfixed ; my assistant Dr. Woodcock fixed it in the usual 

 way with methyl alcohol, and stained it for me with Giemsa's 

 modification of the Romanowsky stain, subsequently differentiated 

 with Unna's tannin-orange solution. The other three slides were 

 sent to me already fixed and stained with Leishman's stain, by 

 Lt.-Col. Wyville- Thomson. It is important to note, therefore, 

 that, for aught I Jcnow to tlie contrary, slide B was prej)ai'ed in the 

 same manner as slides C and D, but in a different way from slide 

 A ; so that the resemblances and differences, presently to be 

 described, exhibited by the four slides, cannot be ascribed to like 

 or unlike methods of preparation in each case. The only differ- 

 ences that can be attributed to the action of the stains used are, 

 that in slide A the ground-colour of the red blood-corpuscles is 

 lighter and more yellowish in tint, in B, C, and D darker and 

 more greyish, and that in slide A the nuclei of the red blood- 

 corpuscles and of the parasites scarcely difier in tint, but in B, 0, 

 and D the nuclei of the red blood-corpuscles have a distinctly 

 purplish tinge, while the nuclei of the parasites show a more 

 pronounced red colour. 



Description of the Parasite. — In all the slides there are to be 

 found both intra-corpuscular forms and free forms, so-called 

 vermicules. The free forms are sufficiently similar to the largest 

 intra-corpuscular forms to warrant the assumption that the}^ have 

 escaped from the corpuscle, and I have twice found parasites 

 apparently in the act of escaj)ing from the corpuscle (PI. LY. fig. 9). 



