A Preliminary Report on a Parasite Found in Persons Suffering from Enlargement of the Spleen in India

current medical journals will remember that in May 1903, Major W. B. Leishman, r.a.m.c., reported the discovery of parasitic bodies, which he suggested were possibly the remains of trijvanosomata, in films taken post-mortem from the spleen of a soldier who had died from a fever apparently contracted in Dum Dum. In July 1903, Captain Donovan, I.M.S., announced that he had found similar bodies in blood obtained by splenic puncture from cases of enlargement of the spleen in Madras; and in January J904, Professor Marchand and Dr. Ledingham published an account of a case in which similar bodies had been found in sections of the spleen, liver, and bone-marrow obtained at the autopsy on a soldier who had served in China. In the report which is now before us, Lieutenant Christophers states that, owing to the importance of the he was directed to proceed to Madras to investigate the nature of the bodies discovered there by Captain Donovan He discusses the question under the following headings :-(l) I he clinical features of f? ?> which the parasites are found; (2) the post-mo, tern appearances of cases; (3) the importance of the disease and its relation o kala-amr; (4) .a description of the parasites and of thenrelation to the red blood corpuscles and to the leucocytes; (5) the distribution of the parasites in the body with an account of a new method of staining sections by a modification of Romanowslcy's stain ; (6) a comparison of the parasites with species of pirop asma Some 1