457 
THE KURLOFF-BODY, A SPURIOUS PARASITE. 
By otto V. HUFFMAN, M.D. 
{From the Laboratories of the Cincinnati Hospital, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.) 
(With 11 Text-figures.) 
Twenty years or more have passed since Kurlofif first observed 
certain vacuoles or cell enclosures in the protoplasm of the large mono¬ 
nuclear leucocytes of the guinea-pig while working'in Ehrlich’s laboratory. 
Since then improved staining methods and discoveries in the field of 
protozoology have made it possible to take new view-points in regard to 
these cell enclosures which are called Kurloff’s-bodies. Therefore it is 
not with surprise that we find Ferrata, Patella, Goldhorn, Schilling and 
others believing these bodies to be protozoan in nature. Patella how¬ 
ever is the only one who claims to have observed a flagellate develop 
from a Kurloff-body and of course this observation would put an end to 
all dispute if it could be verified. 
After Patella had observed a Kurloff-body develop flagella and 
acquire motility he undertook to prove that the Kurloff-body is an 
intracellular phase in the life cycle of a flagellate commonly found in an 
infusion of the greens which may be fed to the guinea-pigs. By isolating 
newly born guinea-pigs and feeding them solely upon sterilized milk and 
bread he succeeded in keeping the blood free of these bodies, but he did 
not observe his isolated guinea-pigs beyond the age of four months 
because they died. It is important to note along with this that Jolly 
and others have found that the Kurloff-body does not appear in the 
circulation of the guinea-pig until it is at least three or four weeks of 
age. Consequent upon his observation of the development of a flagellate 
in the blood and the results he obtained in his feeding experiment, 
Patella jumped to the early conclusion that the Kurloff-body is none 
other than the intracellular phase of a flagellate which occurs in an 
infusion of greens. That this was conjecture upon the part of Patella 
is further shown by his belief that the Kurloff-body is identical with the 
Parasitology iv 30 
V 
