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.

    458/492 page 414
    It is impossible at present to fully estimate this proposed hypo- thesis, and it is important in the first place to wait for the detailed publication of the results obtained by the Sicilian investigators before passing a judgment on the correctness of their argument. With all reserve, and without in the least drawing the slightest conclusion from it, I may mention that I once had the. opportunity during a cultivation experiment (with tertian parasites) in the moist oxygen chamber to find in the preparation, twelve hours after the commencement of the experiment, two cysts which appeared to completely resemble the cysts of the Monas guttula, Ehrenberg. That the malarial germs may be inhaled with the air there can be no possible doubt after innumerable experiences, although there are observations reported from time to time which point to the fact that it is also possible to acquire malaria through the intes- tinal tract, especially by means of drinking water.1 These observations are, however, very few as against the general experience as to the dangerous nature of the air in malarious districts ; indeed, it appears that a number of these communications are not completely free from objection with refer- ence to the correctness of the diagnosis of the cases of disease in question. In the well-known case of the ship “ Argo,v which was reported by Boudin and which has been quoted repeatedly since then, the circumstances are also, as Colin pointed out, not irrefutable, and it is by no means certain that those of the crew who are said to have suffered from malaria at sea, owing to the use of bad drinking-water, really suffered from malaria, and not rather from some typhoid condition, as Colin finds reason to suppose.2 In my opinion the same objection can be raised also against Senise [146], who three years ago reported on the outbreak of a malarial epidemic in Basilicata, where, in consequence of damage to the aqueduct, the population used impure drinking water. The cases of illness appear to have chiefly presented appearances of gastro-enteritis and liver complaints. Unfortunately, Senise neglected the investigation of the blood, and from what we know now the diagnosis of malaria must be doubted. That, on the other hand, drinking of even very bad swamp water need not produce malaria has been repeatedly proved, as indeed by Marchiafava and Celli [19] several years ago, 1 Biickner’s [145] observation may be given as a curiosity, namely, that an ague could be given by a malarial patient to a healthy person with whom he slept in the same bed. 2 Colin, quoted by Kelsch and Kiener [98, page 843].
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