﻿ON THE CULTIVATION OF A BOVINE PIROPLASMA: 

 A PRELIMINARY COMMUNICATION. 



By M. Miyajima. 



(From the Imperial Institute for tlie Research of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, 

 Japan: Director, Prof. 8. Kitasato.) 1 



One of the most interesting subjects in medical science, especially in 

 tropical medicine, is an investigation of the parasitic protozoa, So many 

 valuable discoveries have been made in the study of these organisms 

 that it is not necessary here to mention them, but nevertheless at present 

 the knowledge of protozoology is not so far advanced as that of bac- 

 teriology. This condition may be ascribed to the fact that on the one 

 hand, the life history of the class protozoa is most complicated and on the 

 other, the protozoan parasites can not be cultivated so easily as those of 

 bacterial origin. However, the efforts of several workers have made the 

 study of the pathogenic protozoa more accessible. The mode of trans- 

 mission of Piroplasma bigeminum was clearly demonstrated by Smith 

 and Kilborne; 2 later the relation of mosquitoes to the malarial parasites 

 was discovered. The pure culture of the pathogenic protozoa outside 

 of the living body was first accomplished by Novy and McNeal 3 in the 

 case of Trypanosoma -lewisi. These fundamental studies have thrown 

 much light upon the methods of investigation in modern protozoology. 

 It is my belief that we owe so much to your countrymen in the progress 

 of this science that I have mentioned their admirable investigations in 

 this field before entering upon the discussion of my own subject. 



Among the problems in modern protozoology which have greatly 

 attracted the attention of scientific men, that one connected with the 

 view of the late Professor Schaudinn 4 with respect to the relation of 

 the bamocytozoa to trypanosomata may be mentioned. Schaudinn an- 

 nounced that the hamocytozoan known as Halteridium develops into a 

 Trypanosoma in the body of the mosquito; furthermore, he believes that 



1 Eead at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical Associa- 

 tion, March 1, 1907. 



2 Bull. Bureau of An. Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agr. (1899). 

 3 Novy and McNeal: Contrib. to Med. Research (1903), 549. 

 4 Arb. a. d. k. Gsndhtsamte (1903-04) 20, 387. 



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