335 



Technique. — Examine a number of pariah dogs, especially 

 puppies and sickly dogs, With a scissors trim the hair ofE the 

 tip of the ear and then snip the skin. 



The disease exists in France, Italy, India, Africa, 

 etc. In the chronic forms the parasite is rare in the 

 circulation, but in the acute form with high fever, 

 icterus, and haemoglobinuria, the parasite (typical 

 pirosoma form) is found with great ease in the 

 blood. Four to six parasites often occur in each 

 cell. Kidney blood post-mortem is extremely rich 

 in parasites. Young-dogs, two to twelve weeks old, 

 are the most easily infected, by intravenous in- 

 jection. The tick, Demacentor reticulatus, is sup- 

 posed to convey infection in Europe, and Haema- 

 physalis laechi in South Africa. Both these ticks 

 appear to pass their larval stages on other hosts 

 than the dog. 



3. Piroplasmaovis. — The disease in Hungary 

 is known as carceag. Babes considers that the 

 organism forms a connecting link between the 

 bacteria and protozoa. Sheep that have recovered 

 have a marked immunity.* 



4. P. [kochi]. — ' African Coast Fever,' de- 

 scribed by KocH, is an exceedingly virulent form 

 of piroplasraa infection in Rhodesia and South 

 Africa, eighty to ninety per cent, of infected 

 cattle die. A peculiarity of the disease is that the 

 anaemia is slight and, correspondingly, haemo- 

 globinuria rare. The parasite is smaller than 

 that of the piroplasma of Texas fever. The 

 parasites are disc-shaped or leaf-shaped, and as 

 the disease progresses may be found in almost 

 every cell. Pear-shaped organisms are rare. It is 

 suspected that Rhiptcephalus decoloratus, or the 



*Motaf. Soc. dj Bio!., 1903, f. 1,523. 



