LEECHES 297 
Within the meshes are what appear to be leucocytes in various 
stages of disintegration, and free nuclei. Among these, at places, 
there can be seen small bodies of nearly the same size as the nuclei 
and taking the stains in the same way, but differing in form. At 
one portion of its circumference the substance of the body is seen 
to draw itself toward a point and in favorable preparations that point 
has been followed some little distance as a delicate filament. In 
most cases the filament remains unstained, or, as observed in a 
Gram-eosin preparation, the club end may stain blue and the filament 
red. Exceptionally one may find a clear area or vacuole in one of the 
clubs. From the fact that the filament is not usually traceable to 
its central connection a more or less flagellate appearance is given 
to the fungus, which represents a condition not believed to exist. 
Not infrequently small spherical bodies are found not far from the 
clubs, which take the stain readily and whose size is sufficiently 
small to admit of the possibility of their being spores. The free ends 
of many of the clubs point toward the periphery of the nodule, 
but this is not a constant feature. 
As a result of the treatment of the nodules with a 10 per cent. 
cold solution of caustic potash, a very profuse and intricately branched 
fungus becomes apparent. The branching is of an irregular order. 
In places there is seen in the filament a central axis, which takes the 
stain, and around this appears a transparent or hyaline sheath of 
varying size. 
In certain of the teased preparations (Biondi-Ehrlich stain) the 
wall of the filament, instead of being smooth and homogeneous, 
appears roughened, as if covered with very minute but numerous 
spinous processes. 
In the sections of the tissue in which the fungus appears the 
substance of the filament is not uniform. In places it is drawn 
together in an irregular manner, with intervening clear spaces of 
greater or less area. 
In some places the filaments show distinct septa, but the latter 
are not common. Some of the club-like endings, especially those 
that are elongated, show a septum at the union with the filament 
proper. Scattered among and coiled around the ordinary filaments 
there have been observed much more slender ones apparently devoid 
of any external sheath. 
There have also been observed numerous small circular bodies of 
Inconstant size. They have been seen lying free in the meshes of 
