226 



COOCIDIUM OVIFOEME. 



Fro. 115. — Psorospermice (?) from 

 the connective tissue of the human 

 kidney. ( x 320, after Lindemann. ) 



a. Connective tissue fibrils. 



i. Connective tissue corpuscles. 



c. Pseudonavicellse, lying free. 



d. Hassall's mucous balls. 

 A. Psorosperm-balls. 



Lindemann reports^ having found Psorosperms even in the human 

 kidney, in the case of a patient who died of Bright's disease in the 



hospital at Nijni Novgorod. The 

 parasites appeared to the naked eye as 

 small brownish-black masses, up to 2 

 mm. in size, which were embedded in 

 great numbers in the tunica serosa, 

 but covered by a thin layer of the 

 same. "In my microscopic examina- 

 tion," Lindemann writes, " these masses 

 were seen to be colonies of Psorosperm- 

 balls, which were embedded in layers in 

 the connective tissue, and surrounded 

 by the fibrous bands which had been 

 bent out of their course by the balls. 

 The cells and fibres of the connective 

 tissue were normal, excepting the 

 bending of the fibres and the spaces 

 thus created, in which the Psoro- 

 sperms lay. Besides this, the organ 

 was infiltrated with a mucous exudation, which contained the well- 

 known mucous balls of Hassall" (Fig. 115). 



In this report one looks in vain for any sure foundation for 

 Lindemann's identification of these structures with Psorosperms. 

 Since this is not forthcoming, we have only the authority of the 

 investigator to rest upon, and this has unfortunately been so much 

 shaken by some of his later investigations,^ that I am very doubtful 

 whether Lindemann was right in regarding the observed structures as 

 Psorosperm-capsules. 



Still less can I recognise the " colonies of Psorosperm-balls " (Fig. 

 116) which Lindemann found on human hair, and I very much regret 

 that the observations on this point were first recorded in my work, 

 and to some extent with my guarantee. Not that I deny the presence 

 of these structures, for they have often been observed before and since ; 

 I am only opposed to their identification with Psorosperms, and the 

 fanciful history which was afterwards accorded to them.^ For it was 



^ See the first edition of this work, Bd. i., p. 943, for notice of Lindemann's com- 

 munication to me on the subject. Virohow has also found Psorosperms in the kidneys of 

 the bat ( Virchow's Archivf. patJwl. Anat., Bd. xviii., p. 527, 1860). 



^ I will only refer to the' entirely false representation which Lindemann gave of the 

 organisation of Echinorhynchus (Bull. Soc. impCr. nat. Moscou, p. 184 et seq., 1865), and 

 to my critique (Archivf. Naturgesch., Jahrg. xxxii., Bd. ii., p. 152, 1866). 



^ See Lindemann's statements, Bidl. Soc, impir. nat. Moscou, p. 425 et seq., 1863, 

 and specially p. 282, 1865. ,^. ... ,, ... ^^ 



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