Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 1.djvu/44

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THE TREATMENT OF TRYPANOSOMIASIS.

but full of interesting stages, e.g., rotation in opposite directions of dividing cells, division into sixteen cells within the envelope of the trypanosome, and subsequent development of a flagellum.

Dr. Todd said that present methods of staining were insufficient for protozoal work; they showed the structures but no detail. The study of protozoa was widely separated from that of bacteria, and must be approached from a different basis, and with the knowledge which we already had that the life-cycles of many species were highly complicated. Continuous observation of living parasites was essentiaL, and parallel hypotheses, acquired by knowledge of malaria, were only useful as aids to interpretation.

Sir Patrick Manson said the Society was greatly indebted to the members of the Liverpool School, who had, at considerable inconvenience to themselves, travelled to London to give them the excellent demonstrations and observations which they had listened to that evening. The development of piroplasma was of great interest and importance, and the researches of Captain Christophers would, he believed, throw much light on a problem in protozoology of which little had hitherto been known. At the request of Dr. Todd, Sir Patrick Manson described the results he had experienced in the treatment of Europeans affected with trypanosomiasis by atoxyl. Several cases under his care undergoing this treatment were doing well, and he founded great hopes on the method. Just as mercury was given in syphilis, so should atoxyl be administered in trypanosomiasis, namely, in small doses for prolonged periods. One case so treated was now free from fever, the patient's blood did not infect when inoculated into animals, and he was apparently cured. He regarded the clinical question as being in many ways parallel to that of syphilis, and said that with care, abundant nourishment, and treatment in the earlier stages, there was a moderately