22 
Blood Parasites 
In two out of the five moles, T. talpae was associated with the intra- 
corpuscular bodies Elleipsisojna thomsoni, whilst Graham-Smith’s bodies 
were commonly present. 
The general shape of the body of the trypanosome is that of an 
elongated spindle, both the anterior and posterior extremities being 
drawn out to a sharp point, the aflagellar end being particular!}' 
pointed. 
The protoplasm, as just mentioned, stains very faintly with the basic 
colour, and often contains chromatoid granules especially in the posterior 
half (Plate II, fig. 6.) 
In some trypanosomes structures were seen resembling a miniature 
trypanosome and at first I was inclined to regard them as such, but 
I sent a specimen to my friend Mr E. M. Nelson for examination and 
he reported that they might possibly be young trypanosomes, but in all 
probability the T. talpae were not viviparous and the structures might 
represent folds in the body. 
The nucleus is small and is situated about the middle of the body as 
regards its long axis, but nearly always to one side, whilst the centrosome 
is placed on the other side of the parasite. The distance of the 
centrosome from the posterior extremity was considerable, measuring on 
an average 8’7 /a, but this might reach 10 ix. 
The average measurements of five T. talpae were as follows: 
Total length 
‘28-3 /j. 
Posterior end to middle of 
Length of body 
22-9 
nucleus 
13-4 fi 
Length of flagellum ... 
5-4 
Width of body 
4-9 
Posterior end to middle of cen¬ 
Nucleus length 
2-1 
trosome 
8-7 
Nucleus breadth ... 
1-3 
Centrosome diameter 0-5 /r. 
Quite recently I have found in the blood of a mole some extremely 
long ribbon-like forms of trypanosomes associated with the ordinary 
type of T. talpae. These were about 38 to 40 p in length, of which the 
body measured 32 to 33 p and the free fiagellum about 6 to 7 /r. They 
were especially remarkable for the extreme length of the posterior 
extremity which has about the same width as that of the body, 2 p, but 
gradually tapers off, and measures 17 to 18 /r from the centrosome to 
the posterior extremity. The centrosome actually lies in the centre, or 
even nearer the anterior than the posterior end of the body, and the 
nucleus is usually situated very near the anterior extremity. 
These forms probably bear the same relation to T. talpae as T. longo- 
caudense does to T. lewisi. 
