The Kingdom of ManLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
The Kingdom of Man
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
African trypanosomiasis; Human beings; Science -- History
A most characteristic feature, which has been made out by the careful
study of these trypanosomes by means of colouring reagents and very
high powers of the microscope, is that, whilst there is a large
granular nucleus there is also a small body at the anterior end of
the animalcule which readily stains and is placed at the end of the
root (so to speak) of the vibratile _flagellum_ or free thread.
This smaller nucleus has been variously called the “micronucleus,”
the “centrosome,” and the “blepharoplast.” It is identical with a
structure similarly placed in non-parasitic microscopic animals
to which trypanosoma is undoubtedly related. We find it in the
phosphorescent noctiluca of our seas, and in various animalcules
called “Flagellata.”
[Illustration: FIG. 51.
The Trypanosome (_T. equiperdum_) of the disease called
“Dourine,” as seen alive in the blood of a rat, eight days after
inoculation.
A, the actively wriggling cork-screw-like parasites; B, the
blood-corpuscles of the rat. This figure, of comparatively low
magnification, gives an indication of the relative size of the
parasites and the blood-corpuscles.
The blood-corpuscles are about 1/5000th of an inch each in
diameter.]
The creature drawn in our fig. 50 is, then, the typical trypanosome.
It is this which the medical investigator looks for in his human
or animal patients; it is this which he has regarded as the sign
and proof of infection. Experiments have shown that, though so much
alike in appearance in the different diseases we have named, yet each
trypanosome has its own properties. Human blood-serum is poisonous
to one and not to another; an animal immune to one is not immune
to another. At present no treatment has been discovered which will
destroy the parasites when once they have effected a lodgment, or
act as an antidote to the poison which they produce in the infected
animal or man. But the fact that in some cases an animal may become
immune to the attack of the parasite which usually is deadly to its
kind, gives hope of an eventual curative treatment for trypanosome
infection; as does also the fact that the serum of some animals acts
as a poison to trypanosomes which flourish in other animals.
With regard to immunity, it must always be remembered that we are
liable to confuse two different conditions under this one term.
An animal may be said to be immune to blood-parasite because that
parasite is actually unable to live in its blood. On the other
hand an animal is often said to be immune to a parasite when the
parasite can and does flourish in its blood or tissues but produces
no poisonous effect. A more precise nomenclature would describe the
attacked organism in the first case as “repellent,” for it repels
the parasite altogether; in the second case as “tolerant,” for it
tolerates the presence and multiplication of the parasite without
suffering by it.
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