W. S. Patton 
113 
certain phases it becomes a little trypanosome, and in a recent paper he 
(1909) describes these observations. On examining the peripheral blood, 
heart blood, and smears of most of the organs of a chaffinch, between 
1 and 3 a.m., they were found to be heavily infected with Halteridium, 
and less so with trypanosomes. Woodcock states that he was able to 
recognise three types of the Halteridium, male, female and indifferent ; 
the latter being distinguished from the female type by its much lighter 
staining cytoplasm, and from the male type by a more compact and denser 
nucleus. He was not able to find any evidences of schizogony in the 
red corpuscles. Many of the Halteridia exhibited nuclear dimorphism ; 
the nuclear elements separating into two constituents, a large body 
staining red with Romanowsky’s stain, and a smaller structure, much 
denser, and staining darkly; the larger body Woodcock regards as the 
trophonucleus and the smaller as the kinetonucleus. 
Actual passage from the halteridium stage to the trypanosome form 
could not be demonstrated with certainty, and Woodcock says, “They 
appear to be few and far between.” He thinks this is due to the fact 
that there were very few trypanosomes in the blood of the chaffinch. 
In a smear of the heart blood he however found a body, which he thinks 
is an intermediate stage between the two parasites. This structure 
Woodcock considers is of the indifferent type, the two nuclei being in 
close contact. A delicate thread or line, which stained bright red, could 
be seen passing from a short transverse deep-staining band down part 
of the length of the body of the parasite, terminating in a definite 
granule. Woodcock thinks this thread represents the central spindle, 
described by Schaudinn, and which later becomes a flagellum. In a 
footnote Woodcock says he has found two or three of these cells. We 
must confess that the evidence brought forward by Woodcock in support 
of his view of this intermediate stage is exceedingly slender. It is not 
even clear that this parasite represents what was once a living 
halteridium, even in spite of the fact that the blood smear was made at 
once. We can find no proof whatever that this parasite is of the 
indifferent type, and that the chromatic mass represents the nucleus and 
blepharoplast in close contact. It is an unjustifiable assumption to say 
that the doubtful pink-staining strand represents a “central spindle.” 
Surely Dr Woodcock cannot expect his readers to accept these state¬ 
ments without more rigid proofs 1 . 
In the bone marrow of a chaffinch he found small trypanosomes; he 
considers they have not arisen as the result of the division of larger 
1 In this connection see Mezincescu’s (1909) recent work on Halteridium. 
Parasitology ii 
8 
