PLASMODIUM MALARIA 169 



higher than their normal temperature. If the bacilH alight 

 upon a spot invested with epithelium, they develop there 

 locally for some time until the epithelium is broken 

 through and infection can take place, the result being the 

 malignant jnistalc. According to Paltauf and Eiselsberg, 

 the 'rag-picker's disease,' which affects persons engaged in 

 sorting rags, especially in paper factories, is identical with 

 anthrax of the lungs. 



Owing to lack of oxygen no spores are formed by it in 

 the body, but it is possible that they may develop on the 

 surface of the ground where there is free access of the gas, 

 and this renders great care necessary in disposing of the 

 bodies of persons or animals dead of anthrax. 



When it is wished to make an experiment on animals the 

 most convenient for the purpose are white mice, which are 

 inoculated by a pocket made under the skin near the tail. 

 The animal dies within forty-eight hours, when the spleen 

 is found greatly enlarged, and abundant bacilli can be 

 detected in it as well as in the blood. A trace of the blood, 

 or of the spleen pulp, is now used to make a gelatine plate, 

 on which the characteristic islets are found in a few days, 

 and a pure culture can be prepared from them. 



Hankin obtained- an excessively poisonous albuminoid 

 body from cultures of anthrax, while Martin ascribes its 

 virulence to an alkaloid. 



Plasmodium malarise. — The protozoa bearing this name, 

 whose connexion with malaria has been established, stand 

 in close relationship to the soil. The names associated 

 with their discovery are those of Laveran, Marchiafava, 

 Celli, Golgi, and Guarnieri. If a drop of blood is taken 

 from a patient suffering from intermittent fever, at the 

 beginning of the fit, there are found within the red corpuscles 

 small, roundish amoeboid bodies, difficult to distinguish 

 from the corpuscular protoplasm (fig. 66). They are 



