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

Date:
1894
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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 King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    suffered from malaria, although in the history given, pro- bably on account of faulty observation (for the insane patient had been for many years in an asylum) there is no reference to the subject. I do not think it superfluous to give a quota- tion from Meckel's original report, because it shows that this dis- tinguished observer recognised clearly the difference between lymph cells and pigment cells. On page 205 [i]1 he says : “ This blood (from the heart), as well as that obtained from all parts of the body, either lying in the capillaries or squeezed out of the vessels, contains black pigment. . . . Invariably a more or less great number of black, irregular granules were united by a colourless substance to a globular, egg-shaped or fusiform body ; the size of these bodies amounted to ‘002 to *007 of a line. In them no other structures could be made out but a transparent connective tissue with 1, 2, 4, and more pigment granules. Even in the larger bodies no particles except pigment granules could, as a rule, be seen. But in several bodies one noticed between the pigment granules a clear, roundish space left free, so that one was obliged to imagine that the nucleus lay there, although not clearly recognised. In rare cases single complete pigment cells could be seen in which there was a distinct nucleus. A distinct cell membrane was not distin- guishable, and the granules never had molecular movement. The bodies were most numerous in the vessels of the grey matter of the brain.39 Meckel reported quite independently during the subsequent progress of his work with regard to the behaviour of the lymph- cells, so that no doubt can be entertained that he differentiated clearly between the pigment cells, the malarial parasites of to-day, and the leucocytes. Almost simultaneously with Meckel, Dlauhy in Prague observed pigment in the organs of the body of a person who had died suddenly with “ typhus-like symptoms. Virchow was present at the post-mortem examination of this body, and reported its results in a letter to Meckel. Virchow [2] had later in Berlin the opportunity of personally making a post-mortem on the body of a patient who had died from fever, and he confirmed the occurrence of pigment cells in the blood. Illustrations of these cells are to be found in the different editions of his Cellular Patho- logy [3]- At this time also attention was directed in Vienna to the pig- ment in the bodies of persons who had died from malaria. Heschl [4,5], at Rokintansky's suggestion, made a series of observations in this connection. Lastly, Planer's [6] work must be mentioned 1 The numbers in brackets refer to the bibliography at the end of the book.