Malaria section of the international celebration and exhibition : three hundredth anniversary of the first recognized use of cinchona by Europeans, 1630-1930, at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, 54, Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square, London, W.1.

  • Wellcome Historical Medical Museum.
Date:
[1930]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Malaria section of the international celebration and exhibition : three hundredth anniversary of the first recognized use of cinchona by Europeans, 1630-1930, at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, 54, Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square, London, W.1. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Mangrove swamp in the shallow portions of which Anophelines breed. House at the base of a hill and adjacent to tropical swamp. Note faulty rain-gutter, unscreened barrel, pineapples which harbour water, and water-bearing epiphytes upon a tree. Boat containing water collection and hoof - mark pools beside a tropical stream. Shallow uncovered well. An infrequent breeding-place of Anophelines. Water tank in tropical garden. Flooded borrow-pits and water channel beside railway track. 630. A detailed description of the three species of malaria parasites :— Plasmodium vivax (Grassi and Feletti, 1890). Causes benign tertian malaria. Parasite requires 48 hoars to complete asexual cycle. Attacks every third day. Sporozoites or merozoites approach red cell, indent it, and force way into stroma of corpuscle. (1) Disc of cytoplasm with single nucleus. (2) Vacuole appears, nucleus pushed aside. Very amoeboid and active. (3) Growth of parasite ; corpuscle enlarged, paler and containing Schiiffner's dots. (4) Continued growth, very irregular shape, numerous yellowish- brown pigment grains. (5) Nucleus breaks up — chromatin granules forming chromatin of daughter nuclei. Typically 16 nuclei present (12-24). (6) Parasite larger and practically fills corpuscle, which is now about 10 or 11 microns. (7) Cytoplasm segments and merozoites are formed. (8) Bursting of corpuscle. Pigment taken up by various leucocytes, large endothelial cells, etc. (N.B.—After a mosquito has injected sporozoites, the initial attack of malaria occurs in 10-12 days ; i.e., it requires five cycles to produce sufficient numbers to give rise to symptoms.) After schizogony has been repeated several times, gametocytes appear —usually 10-14 da}^s after initial attack. The process of growth from merozoite to gametocyte takes place almost entirety in the vessels of the spleen or bone marrow, where the affected red blood corpuscles are held up. Amoeboid action not marked. Corpuscles increase in size and Schiiffner's dots develop. Male: pale cytoplasm, diffuse nucleus; female: dense cytoplasm, compact nucleus. In both sexes pigment granules are scattered through the cytoplasm. Supposed reproduction by Parthenogenesis. Schaudinn's theory is probably incorrect ; the condition described being the result of double infection of a cell by schizont and gametocyte (see illustrations).