5o6 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE [chap. 



liver composed entirely of the hypertrophied folded and 

 fringed wall of the bile ducts. 



Coccidium oviforme occurs also in the epithelial cells 

 lining the mucous membrane of the intestine in the rabbit. 

 The coccidia are oval corpuscles about 33-37 /x in length, 

 15-20 /i broad ; each possesses a distinct capsule or cuticle, 

 which at one (thinner) pole contains a minute opening or 

 micropyle. The body of the parasite is a granular proto- 

 plasm, in its fully formed state completely filling the space 

 within the capsule, and containing an oval, clear nucleus. 

 In this condition they are numerously found amongst the 

 epithelium, and also free in the cavity of the intestine and 

 the hypertrophied bile ducts respectively ; but the majority 

 of forms seen in the epithelium are almost spherical, less 

 oval than the above, and possess a thinner capsule ; in some 

 the capsule is hardly recognisable, they contain a more 

 coarsely granular protoplasm, and within it a clear, 

 spherical nucleus. These are found in great numbers in 

 the epithelium, replacing at points almost completely the 

 epithelial cells, some being distinctly situated within the 

 body of the epithelial cells. The same is the case in the 

 epithelium of the enlarged bile ducts in the liver nodules. 



It is not at all easy to decide what is the exact relation- 

 ship between these smaller, granular, indistinctly capsulated, 

 spherical bodies and the large, granular, oval, distinctly 

 capsulated coccidia. According to Leuckart, the former 

 would represent young coccidia just germinated from the 

 spores ; but this can hardly be correct, considering that in 

 all nodules, particularly the large ones, the small spherical, 

 indistinctly capsulated coccidia abound, and, further, con- 

 sidering that spores are not formed in the coccidia within 

 the animal body. It is therefore more probable that the 

 small spherical coccidia are derived by division from the 



