380 ENTERO-HEPATITIS IN TURKEYS 



shrinkage, on the one hand, and on the other to a slight flat- 

 tening of the bodies by pressure in the fresh preparations. 

 These peculiar homogeneous bodies were found, as a rule, free 

 in the crushed preparations, although occasionally giant cells 

 were detected which contained a number of them. The cell 

 nuclei of the giant cells are not visible in the fresh condition. 

 Numerous coarse granules, less frequently fat globules, are 

 embedded in its protoplasm. 



Smith believed from the results of his investigations that 

 the parasite lived in the interstices and lymph spaces of the 

 tissue, but not within cells. This seems certainly true of the 

 cecum. The liver cells become necrotic or else disappear so 

 rapidly that it is impossible to determine just where the para- 

 sites begin to multiply. They do not live within the blood 

 vessels, as they are not found within them excepting perhaps 

 in a thrombosed vessel. They must, therefore, occupy the 

 place of the liver cells. It is probable that they begin to 

 multiply in the connective tissue adjoining the blood vessel 

 and simply crowd out the liver cells, leaving the connective 

 tissue stroma of the lobules in whose meshes they are found. 



Their presence within giant cells is seen in almost every 

 infected organ subjected to examination. In teased prepara- 

 tions the fresh tissues they are frequently found with remnants 

 of the inclosing cells still attached. This intracellular condi- 

 tion is, however, a purely passive one so far as the parasite is 

 concerned. 



The microparasites within the tissue of the host seem to 

 tend toward destruction. Both the death of the tissue itself 

 and the repair seem to lead to the disappearance of the para- 

 sites. In most cases there may be seen in the same section a 

 partial dissolution of some of the bodies, while others are still 

 in good preservation. Evidently their life within the tissues 

 is not very long. 



A discharge of the microparasites which escape destruc- 

 tion probably takes place from the walls of the ceca, when 

 these break down into the contents with which they are carried 

 outward. A similar discharge may take place from the liver 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



