On a haematozoon in human blood : its relation to chyluria and other diseases / by T.R. Lewis.

  • Lewis, T. R. (Timothy Richards), 1841-1886.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a haematozoon in human blood : its relation to chyluria and other diseases / by T.R. Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    searcher admirably; it^embraces a tolerably large area bo that the preparation can be examined in a comparatively short time ; but care should be taken to keep the fine adjustment screw con- stantly moving, so as to examine the deeper as well as the super- ficial layer of fluid in each field as it passes under observation. Should anything unusual be observed, the low power must be replaced by a oi’, better, a objective.* In order to keep the active haematozoon under observation for some hours, a camel-hair pencil, dipped in a solution of Canada-balsam, or mastic in chloroform, should be passed along the edges of the covering glass, so as to prevent evaporation and the formation of air spaces in the preparation. The appearance presented by the Haematozoon when first seen among the blood corpuscles, in the living state, will not readily be forgotten, and cannot possibly be mistaken for anything else. The remark made by a young Bengalee student on my request- ing him to look into the microscope and tell me what he saw— “ He is an incompletely developed snake, evidently very young, though very active”—so aptly describes the object as thus wit- nessed, that I feel sure that any one seeing the Haematozoon alive will not fail to be struck with the accuracy of the quaint reply. * It may seem superfluous to draw attention to the similarity which exists between some vegetable fibres and some of the miscroscopic “ filarias,” when the latter are not alive ; nevertheless a very good objective is frequently required to distinguish them with certainty, as any one may prove for himself by subjecting the torn flufEy edges of a piece of blotting-paper to miscroscopic examination. Filaria-like fibrils wiU frequently be found. A mistake of this kind is referred to by Leuckart as having occurred quite recently. A paper was published announcing the discovery of a filaria-like mematode in the intestines, blood, and tissues of a patient, which was expected to prove as dangerous to life as the Trichina spiralis. These parasites subse- quently proved to be nothing more than vegetable hairs !—“ Die Menschlichen Pavasiten,” Vol. II. part I, p. 161.