1 Mar., 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 213 
In some cover-glass preparations, more particularly in such as have been 
made from an advanced case, a certain proportion of the ‘Pyrosoma will be 
found to have a clear central portion which does not readily stain with aniline 
dyes (Fig. IT.). It will also be seen that a consilerable number of these bodies 
are now free, whilst others, not yet quite free, are still surrounded by the more 
or less faded and disintegrated remnants of the corpusele in which they grew. 
It will also be noticed that some bodies—or rather pairs of bodies—whether 
free or still within the cells are a good deal larger than others, and that the 
clear central portion, just now referred to, is, as a rule, more marked in the 
larger bodies. A1l these appearances are perfectly obvious in almost any well- 
stained* blood film from the heart’s capillaries of an advanced case. 
On examining such preparations one now and then encounters large and 
very reinarkable-looking bodies of more or less crescentic form. So large and 
so remarkable are they that it is somewhat difficult to account for their having 
so long escaped notice. The bodies in question are represented in Figs. IIL, 
IV.,and V. It will be seen that their size varies somewhat. ‘Their length is 
about three times their breadth, which latter roughly corresponds to the 
diameter of a bovine red blood corpuscle. ‘ 
Their shape is very peculiarand characteristic,and may very well be described 
as crescentic, though one horn of the erescent is alraost invariably thicker 
and more rounded than the other.+ The thin end is sometimes pretty sharply 
incurved, giving them much the form of a farm instrument called a “ bill-hook.” 
They also very strongly resemble the spores of certain hyphomycetous fungi. 
Sometimes, however, they are only slightly curved, and both ends are rounded. 
Most of them have a roundish well-defined space, which, in specimens stained 
with gentian violet, is almost unaffected by that dye (vide Fig. III.). This is, 
presumably, a nucleus (possibly, a vacuole?). Its position in the crescent 
varies somewhat, but it is perhaps more frequently placed towards the rounded 
end of the crescent. The substance of the crescent itself appears roughly 
granular, «s will be presently further described. Examined with a high power, 
the pointed end has frequently the appearance of being open or in some way 
incomplete. In specimens stained with methyl blue and eosin the round 
nuclear (?) body is still untinted, and has sometimes the appearance of being 
more or less diffused (?) in the substance of the crescent ; the latter, especially 
towards the sharper end, is more or less distinctly speckled with eosin-tinted 
points.§ (Fig. LY.) . 
The grouping of the crescents is as remarkable as their morphological 
appearance. Not infrequently they are found singly. But in many instances 
they are bunched together in very peculiar groups or clusters, the kind of 
arrangement being to some extent shown in Hig. LY. 
* Gentian violet has been found, by the writer, by far the most satisfactory dye in this 
investigation. ile ak f : 
+ This peculiarity is worth bearing in mind in connection with the origin of these bodies. 
+ Such a fungus, bearing innumerable semi-lunar spore cases of about the same size as the 
crescents described, is frequently to be found as a parasite on cattle ticks, especially on the 
carcasses of such as for some unknown reason turn black and perish before or during the process 
of oviposition. Whether this fungus grows only as an accidental saprophyte on dead ticks, or 
whether it has any part in causing their death, as the Saprolegnia ferax kills the house-fly, has not 
been made out, but cultivations from the inside parts of such ticks yield the fungus in abundance, 
When a hanging drop cultivation of this fungus is kept at a suitable temperature and watched 
for several days under the microscope, spermatia may be seen to escape froin the spore cases, and 
these spermatia are very frequently in pairs with their ends inclined towards each other, something 
after the manner of Pyrosoma. Its mycelial hyphz also frequently contain very small, roundish, 
refractive, actively motile bodies of variable size, which very closely resemble the free amaeboids of 
tick fever. The discovery of this fungus on ticks was made almost at the same time as that of 
the crescentic bodies in the blood of affected cattle, and so strong was the resemblance (vide 
Fig. VI.) that in spite the intrinsic improbability (some might even say gross absurdity !), both on 
biological and pathological grounds, of supposing them to be identical, that idea was not com- 
pletely dispelled until quite a large number of inoculation experiments with the artificially 
cultivated tick fungus had clearly shown that it had no pathogenic effect when tattooed into the 
skin or when injected in large quantities—subcutaneously or into the veins of susceptible cattle. 
‘This fungus is only here mentioned on account of the waste of time and Jabour it caused, and 
might conceivably cause again. ast 
§ This circumstance may, perhaps, be regarded as a small piece of corroborative evidence of 
the intracorpuscular origin of the crescents. ; . 
° 
