Two monographs on malaria and the parasites of malarial fevers / I. Marchiafava and Bignami, II. Mannaberg.

  • New Sydenham Society
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two monographs on malaria and the parasites of malarial fevers / I. Marchiafava and Bignami, II. Mannaberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    The solution should be boiled and filtered before use; the injection should be made into a small vein in the arm. It may be injected direct through the skin, which has been previously thoroughly disinfected. Apart from the method of administration there may be other circumstances which retard the action of quinine, as, for instance, imperfect action of the mucous membrane of the stomach or intestines or of the subcutaneous connective tissue which delays absorption, blocking of the cerebral capillaries with infested blood-corpuscles, on account of which the parasites cannot come in contact with the quinine, and possibly also a heightened power of resistance on the part of some species of the parasite. One series of the malarial parasites is completely tinsusce2}tihle to the action of quinine, namely that of the crescentic bodies. All observers are at one in stating that these bodies remain unaltered even by the most energetic administration of quinine, and that the treatment in these cases likewise plays no prophylactic role is shown by relapses occurring whether or not quinine has been given during the periods of apyrexia. This fact also militates against Bignami's view of latent spores which have escaped out of the phagocytes causing relapses. Through all the various stages of the development of the malarial parasite the spores are the most susceptible to the action of quinine. Golgi [140] has constructed the following scale of susceptibility to quinine for the various phases of development of the quartan parasite, based upon his experience of fresh specimens of blood. I. Spores. II. Mature forms before the commencement of the process of segmentation. III. Endocorpuscular younger forms. The spores are the most susceptible bodies ; then follow the large bodies which have completely replaced the blood-corpuscles, and finally the endocorpuscular younger bodies whose blood- corpuscle envelope Golgi considers as a relative protection against quinine. Of the tertian parasites Golgi has found, as I have, the endocorpuscular immature forms very susceptible, and he believes that the quinine can more easily penetrate into the hypertrophied more flexible blood-corpuscles. In quartan and tertian fevers Golgi has tried to ascertain, by observing the appearance of the parasites, at what time the administration of quinine is of the greatest use in the smallest dose, and he came to the conclusion that the most beneficial time