Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-08-25
mALAnlAl eEam cAuolll


science has At last caught ana I'M
prisoned on glass slides. Tor the beneflt
OF humanity. the germ Of malaria. For
many years medical men have Iab0red
In vain to isolate this tiny cause OF
human misery. Colorless, finer than q
needles point and vet productive Of .
vast amount Of anguish, 1t has eluded,
up to short time since, the most deli
cate and vigorous experiments which
savants could plan out. Now, however,
1t has been captured and through the
aid of DR.. Patrick Manson, physician
Of the 6eamen's Hospital and lecturer
at st. Georges and Charing Cross Hos
pitfalls in London. has been stained 20
that the lens OF the camera might
faithfully picture 1t.
The photographs which are herewith
reproduced show this little horror just
as 1t looks when It enters the system
and carry the readers eye through the
various stages OF development until the
Anal point Is reached. It il impossible
to 0ver-estimate the Importance Of the
discovery of the malarial organism, a.
discovery which ranks second only in
modern medical achievement to the
finding by Professor Koch Of the
bacillus OF consumption. 1t is impos-
sfble to doubt the relationship Of the
germ of malaria photographed to the
disease, for experimental incubation
Of human beings with blood known to
contain the parasite has invariably
been followed by symptoms in the one
inoculated corresponding to the gymp-
toms Of the person from whom the in
fected blood was taken.
Experiment has also demonstrated
that the one great destroyer Of this
maiarial parasite is quinine. To this
extent has the theory OF modern medi-
cine been proved correct. But DIR.
Manson shows that there has been
woeful Ignorance Of the proper method
of administering the medicine and
that we have in a measure been dosing
ourselves at random.
1t Is fact that many physicians
have scoffed at the idea of quinine be-
ing the best remedy for malaria. DIR.
Manson's experiments, however seem
to prove that the hitherto accepted be-
lief OF these gentlemen is incorrect. It
has been decided that each clinical
type of the disease, the terrain, the
quartian. and the estivo-au-tumnal,
depends upon a particular species.
Irregular cases are supposed to be
due to the invasion of the body by more
than one variety at a time. III DIR.
Manson is correct in his conclusions,
the different types are only different
stages in the evolution of the one par
asite which at each stage produces diff
fercnt symptoms. In the end all reach
~ Aasv lnf tod cto 10, hoi
is cut short by quinine, or some other
drug of equal power.
DIR. Manson says that by following
the methods he describes a large num-
Ter Of preparations of the fiaggellate
body can be procured.
Thirty or 40 strips g inches by ~
inches) of thick blctting paper, each
having an oblong hole Zone inch by
two-thirds incE) cut lengthwise in its
center. are prepared: they are then
slightly. but sufficiently moistened with
water. and laid in rows on sheet of
window glass,
A patient in whose blood the crescent
form of the malaria parasite abounds,
is selected. His finger is pricked, and a
minute driplet of blood. the size of a
large pin head, is expressed. "A clean
microscope slip is then breathed on
once, and the droplet of blood imme-
diately taken up by lightly touching it
with the center of the brea thed-On
surface of the slip. The blood is now
rapidly spread out with needle. Inn
mediately the slip is inverted over the
blclsting paper cell, thus forming per-
feet moist chamber. In about half All
hour the slips the removed, gently
dried, and fixed with alcohol, then |
stained. Most of the slides will show |
numbers of spheres, and many we'll
stained flagellated bodies.
Very few ofescents remain untrans- |
formed. In the crescents (fgure y, in
the ovals Figure p and in the carly |
stages of the sphere Figure 81, 1t can be
seen that the melanin pigment lies in or
on central body, which takes tho |
futvlsine stain less intensely than does
the peripheral portion of the organism. |
1t is also evident that at a later stage