Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing
History
Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing
Medicine -- History
The first confirmation in this country of Laveran's discovery of
amoeboid parasites in the blood of malarial fever patients was made by
myself in the pathological laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University in
March, 1886. In May, 1885, I had visited Rome as a delegate to the
International Sanitary Conference, convened in that city under the
auspices of the Italian Government, and while there I visited the Santo
Spirito Hospital for the purpose of witnessing a demonstration, by Drs.
Marchiafava and Celli, of that city, of the presence of the _plasmodium
malariæ_ in the blood of persons suffering from intermittent fever.
Blood was drawn from the finger during the febrile [feverish] attack and
from individuals to whom quinine had not been administered. The
demonstration was entirely satisfactory, and no doubt was left in my
mind that I saw living parasitic micro-organisms in the interior of red
blood corpuscles obtained from the circulation of malarial fever
patients. The motions were quite slow, and were manifested by a gradual
change of outline rather than by visible movement. After a period of
amoeboid activity of greater or less duration, the body again assumed
an oval or spherical form and remained quiescent for a time. While in
this form it was easily recognized, as the spherical shape caused the
light passing through it to be refracted and gave the impression of a
body having a dark contour and a central vacuole [minute cavity]; but
when it was flattened out and undergoing amoeboid changes in form, it
was necessary to focus very carefully and to have a good illumination in
order to see it. The objective used was a Zeiss's one-twelfth inch
homogeneous oil immersion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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