Note on the bodies recently described by Leishman and Donovan / by R. Ross.

  • Ronald Ross
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Note on the bodies recently described by Leishman and Donovan / by R. Ross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted trom the BRITISH MEpIcAL JOURNAL, Nov. 14, 21 & 28, 1903. (From B.M.J., Nov. thth, 1903.) NOTE ON THE BODIES RECENTLY DESCRIBED “BY LEISHMAN AND DONOVAN. By Masor R. ROSS, F.B.S., F.RB.C.S., C.B., Professor of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool. (From the Johnston Tropical Laboratory, Liverpool.) In May, 1903, Major Leishman, R.A.M.C., described! certain small oval bodies occurring in smear preparations made post mortem from the spleen of a soldier suffering from low fever, chronic dysentery, and cachexia. The observation was made in London at the Military Hospital, and the patient had contracted his illness at Dum-Dum, near Calcutta. Leishman gave avery accurate description of these bodies. He said that they existed in large numbers among the spleen cells and red corpuscles ; that they were round or oval, and 2 u to 3 win diameter; that on staining with Romanowsky’s method they were found to contain two masses of chromatin—a large circular mass or ring, and another smaller mass, “ usually in the form of a short rod set perpendicularly or at a tangent to the circumference of the larger mass.” The outline of the bodies containing these two masses of chromatin was faintly visible with this stain. The bodies were usually isolated, but occasionally aggregated into ‘‘clumps composed of twenty to fifty members.” Regarding their nature, he thought it probable that they were the residue of trypanosomes of which the vibratile membrane had disappeared after death, leaving behind the nucleus and micronucleus shrunk together ina small mass, and quotes in support of this view the occurrence of similar post-mortem changes in the trypanosomes of dead rats. In July Captain Donovan, I.M.S., stated? that he had already found the same bodies on April 9th, 23rd, and 24th in post-mortem smears from the spleens of three consecutive eases said to have died from chronic malaria in Madras. At first he thought that the bodies represented the long-sought- for resting stage of the malaria parasite, but, after finding them in two other cases, began to think that they were post- mortem degenerations of spleen cells. On reading Leishman’s paper he recognized their similarity to the bodies described by that observer ; and next was able to recover them in blood taken intra vitam from the spleen of a boy suffering from irregular pyrexia (June 17th). He remarks that this case excludes the possibility of the bodies being due to post- mortem changes, and adds that nothing resembling trypano- somata could be found in the boy’s blood. 22500309957
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