I40 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 268 



\}ae. Plasmodium malaria, which he found in the blood of patients 

 suffering from malaria. The views of Laveran are to-day the most 

 generally accepted. Councilman, Osier, and Sternberg, all Ameri- 

 can physicians, have given much attention to the subject, and, so 

 far as we know, have in general accepted Laveran's views. Dr. 

 M. B. James of New Yorli recently read a paper on this subject 

 before the New Yorlc Pathological Society, which is published in 

 the New York Medical Record. He says that at present our 

 knowledge may be summed up as follows : — 



" In the blood of persons suffering from malarial disease there is 

 a series of phenomena not yet found under any other conditions. 

 These phenomena point to the presence of an animal parasite. 

 The appearances that we get are one or more of the following : 



" First, Colorless protoplasmic bodies inside the red blood-cor- 

 puscles. They vary in size from one-fifth to almost the whole 

 diameter of the corpuscle. They exhibit active amoeboid move- 

 ments. Some contain scattered granules of brownish-black pig- 

 ment ; others are unpigmented. The red corpuscle which contains 

 the amoeboid body is commonly larger, flatter, and paler than nor- 

 mal. 



" Second, We find disk-shaped bodies of colorless protoplasm. 

 They are somewhat larger than a red blood-corpuscle. They show 

 no amoeboid movements. They contain scattered pigment-granules. 

 They are apparently a later stage of the form first mentioned, which 

 has come to occupy the entire corpuscle, and has then entered upon 

 a cyst stage. 



" Third, We find forms similar to the cysts, but in which the pig- 

 ment-granules have become massed at the centre, while the pro- 

 toplasm is undergoing segmentation. Then there are found 

 various stages in the transition from the encysted to the segmen- 

 tary form. 



" Fourth, "^e. have the small masses of protoplasm that have 

 resulted from the segmentation of the cyst form. They are com- 

 monly somewhat oval in shape. In fresh blood it is difficult or 

 impossible to distinguish them from blood-plaques. In dried blood 

 they show a tolerably characteristic bipolar staining with aniline 

 dyes. 



" Fifth, We have hyaline bodies of crescentic shape, in length 

 rather more than the diameter of a red blood-cell. They have, in 

 every case, a collection of pigment-granules in their centre. These 

 are the so-called ' crescentic bodies.' 



" In some cases there are found bodies resembling the crescents 

 closely in character, but elliptical or round. The crescents may 

 have a delicate curved outline opposite the concavity or convexity, 

 or both, but this outline never reaches quite to the tips of the cres- 

 cent. 



" Lastly, there are the various motile bodies. These are, first, 

 flagellated bodies, — around or pear-shaped body, about one-half 

 the diameter of a red blood-cell. It contains pigment-granules, 

 and is provided with from one to four flagella, which show an active 

 lashing motion, and by means of which the organism moves about 

 in the blood-plasma. The flagella are several times as long as the 

 diameter of a red cell. Their motion is active enough to set up 

 well-marked movements on the part of the neighboring blood-cor- 

 puscles. Second, free flagella have been described. They seem to 

 have become detached from their bodies, and to be capable of 

 leading an independent existence. They exhibit active movements. 

 Third, some observers have described hyaline pigmented bodies 

 with an actively moving, undulating periphery." 



In thirty-five cases in which Dr. James had an opportunity of 

 studying the blood, he found the parasite in thirty-four. In one 

 case, in which he was able to examine the blood but once, he failed 

 to find it. In several cases where the diagnosis was doubtful he 

 has been able to exclude malaria by failing to find the plasmodium, 

 and the subsequent history has confirmed the microscopic exami- 

 nation. 



The microscopic technique is simple. The blood is best examined 

 fresh, spread out in the thinnest possible layer, — the rouleaux of cor- 

 puscles broken up. High-power objectives are necessary. A ^V 

 inch oil immersion answers well. 



Stained specimens are best prepared by drying the blood in a 

 very thin layer on a cover-glass, which is then passed through a 

 flame, as in examining for bacteria. It may be stained in a watery 



solution of an aniline dye, washed out in water, or partly decolor- 

 ized in alcohol, and mounted, as usual, in balsam. Fuchsine and 

 methylene blue give the best results. Dr. James finds methylene 

 blue most satisfactory, the red corpuscles staining light green, 

 and the hccmatozoa blue. 



Unpigmented amoeboid bodies are best studied in stained speci- 

 mens. The pigmented amoeboid bodies, which are those most 

 commonly met with, are best seen in fresh blood. The crescents 

 also show most satisfactorily unstained. The segmenting bodies 

 and free spores are best studied after drying and staining. 



The apparent effect of medication on the organism is important. 



A few large doses of quinine are almost invariably followed by a 

 disappearance from the blood of the various amoeboid forms. The 

 crescentic bodies remain unchanged after quinine, but commonly 

 show a diminution in number as the health improves under the 

 treatment proper for chronic paludism. 



These apparent results of treatment followed in his cases as in those 

 of most other observers. The organism has not yet been discov- 

 ered except in human blood and organs. It has never been isolated. 

 It has never been cultivated outside the body. 



Inoculative experiments on human beings are almost uniformly 

 successful. Intravenous injection of malarial blood into a healthy 

 individual is followed by typical intermittent fever, with the appear- 

 ance in the blood of the second person of the various forms of the 

 organism described. These experiments have been made by Ger- 

 hardt in Germany, and by JVIarchiafava and Celli and other Ital- 

 ians. 



Subcutaneous injections have been unsuccessful. 



The few inoculative experiments that have been made upon mon- 

 keys have been unsuccessful. 



As regards the name of the organism : the term ' plasmodium ' 

 has been improperly used in this connection. This name has long 

 been applied to a segregation stage of some of the mycetozoa, and 

 so means, not a particular organism, but a stage of development 

 common to many different organisms. Moreover, so far as we 

 know, the malarial germ has no plasmodium stage. 



It is much better, then, in designating the malarial organism, to 

 use the term ' hrematozoon of malaria,' as suggested by Laveran, 

 which commits us to no definite classification. 



Typhoid Infection. — The investigation into the outbreak of 

 typhoid-fever at the Michigan State Prison at Jackson by Prof. V. 

 C. Vaughan has resulted in obtaining facts which tend strongly to 

 prove that the outbreak was due to defective sewerage. We 

 have repeatedly maintained in Science the probability that sew- 

 ers and house-draining were efficient agents in the propagation of 

 typhoid-fever, basing our opinion upon a large number of cases 

 which occurred in Brooklyn in 1885, in which all other sources 

 seemed to be excluded. In the investigation which Professor 

 Vaughan made, the water-supply and milk-supply were first ruled 

 out as possible vehicles by negative evidence. It was then thought 

 that the defective condition of the sewers, combined with the insuf- 

 ficient supply of fresh air, was the most probable cause of the epi- 

 demic. The cases nearly all were from a distinct portion of the 

 prison, and investigation proved that the soil-pipe running from the 

 hospital, and the house-drain, into which it entered, were defective, 

 and were pouring sewer-air into that portion of the prison. Pro- 

 fessor Vaughan took to his laboratory a sample of the air from within 

 the soil-pipe, and has found within it the specific germ of typhoid- 

 fever. Such facts as these are of the greatest ])ractical importance, 

 and should be made a inatterof record whenever they are observed, 

 and should be widely disseminated. They show the absolute neces- 

 sity for thorough disinfection of the excreta of typhoid-fever pa- 

 tients, and the dangers which may and probably will result from a 

 neglect of this important measure. Had the discharges from a 

 single typhoid-fever patient been efficiently disinfected, the devas- 

 tating Plymouth epidemic, which resulted in the sickness of 1,153 

 persons, and the death of 114, and a total money-loss of Si > 5.539. 

 would never have occurred. 



Grafts on Wounds. — Dr. Redard has communicated to the 

 Academic de Medecine of Paris, according to the New York Med- 

 ical Record, some observations regarding animal grafts on wounds 

 in human beings. In a case of severe burn of the scalp, of eight 



