Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing
History
Little Masterpieces of Science: Health and Healing
Medicine -- History
"In order that the disease be reproduced in the inoculated subject it is
not necessary to inject the malarial blood into a vein of the recipient,
as has been done in most of the experiments; a subcutaneous injection is
all-sufficient. Nor is it necessary to inject several cubic centimeters,
as was done especially in the earlier experiments; a fraction of a cubic
centimeter will suffice, and even less than one drop, as Bignami has
shown."
After the inoculation of a healthy individual with blood containing the
parasite a period varying from four to twenty-one days elapses before
the occurrence of a febrile paroxysm. This is the so-called period of
incubation, during which, no doubt, the parasite is undergoing
multiplication in the blood of the inoculated individual. The duration
of this period depends to some extent upon the quantity of blood used
for the inoculation and its richness in parasites. It also depends upon
the particular variety of the parasite present, for it has been
ascertained that there are at least three distinct varieties of the
malarial parasite--one which produces the quartan type of fever, in
which there is a paroxysm every third day and in which, in experimental
inoculations made, the period of incubation has varied from eleven to
eighteen days; in the tertian type, or second day fever, the period of
incubation noted has been from nine to twelve days; and in the
æstivo-autumnal type the duration has usually not exceeded five days.
The parasite associated with each of these types of fever may be
recognized by an expert, and there is no longer any doubt that the
difference in type is due to the fact that different varieties or
"species" of the malarial parasite exist, each having a different period
of development. Blood drawn during a febrile paroxysm shows the parasite
in its different stages of intra-corpuscular development. The final
result of this development is a segmenting body, having pigment granules
at its center, which occupies the greater part of the interior of the
red corpuscle. The number of segments into which this body divides
differs in the different types of fever, and there are other points of
difference by which the several varieties may be distinguished one from
the other, but which it is not necessary to mention at the present time.
The important point is that the result of the segmentation of the adult
parasites contained in the red corpuscles is the formation of a large
number of spore-like bodies, which are set free by the disintegration of
the remains of the blood corpuscles and which constitute a new brood of
reproductive elements, which in their turn invade healthy blood
corpuscles and effect their destruction. This cycle of development
without doubt accounts for the periodicity of the characteristic febrile
paroxysms; and, as stated, the different varieties complete their cycle
of development in different period of time, thus accounting for the
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