REMARKS ON PIROPLASMOSIS.^ 



By E. Martini.' 



Theobald Smith was the first to recognize the real nature of Piro- 

 plasmata. He discovered the germ of Texas fever in the red blood cells 

 of cattle in 1893 and called it Pirosoma iigeminum on accoimt of its 

 pearlike shape. Babes, a Eoumanian, in 1888, had already observed 

 similar organisms in the red blood cells of cattle, but he held them to be 

 diplococci. Although these organisms are in no way related to bacteria, 

 nevertheless, to Babes is given the priority of their discovery, especially 

 by zoologists, and the whole group is called after him Babesia; other 

 observers, especially Laveran and Mesnil, inclining more to Theobald 

 Smith's nomenclature, have adopted the name of Piroplasma. 



The Piroplasma bigeminum which I shall describe fully as a type of 

 the group is illustrated in Plate I, fig. 1. The organism is pear-shaped in 

 outline and the body is double ; the cytoplasm stains blue, and the chroma- 

 tin-mass red. The whole parasite lies within a red blood cell. This 

 parasite is transferred from animal to animal by means of ticks, and it 

 weakens or even kills the host which it attacks through the destruction 

 of enormous numbers of red blood cells, or in other words, by the severe 

 anaemia which it produces. 



It would take too long to give a full description of all the symptoms 

 of the diseases to which Piroplasmata give rise, and in regard to the 

 transmission of the diseases, I shall merely remark that only adult ticks, 

 which have sucked the infected blood, or their young, are capable of 

 transferring the disease from a sick to a healthy animal. 



Since the discovery of Piroplasma bigeminum similar organisms have 

 been sought for in all species of animals, not excepting man and in 

 almost every part of the world. The Piroplasma of the horse and of the 

 dog and the Piroplasma of Ehodesia fever in cattle, and others, all of 

 similar morphology, have now been discovered. The last, name Piro- 

 plasma parvum, is extremely destructive to cattle, and was discovered by 

 Koch in Ehodesia. 



' Read at the Sixth Animal Meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical Associa- 

 tion, February 13, 1909. 



* Surgeon major. Royal German Navy; detailed medical biologist to the 

 Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I. 



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