may now become diffused through the general mass of the sphere (Fig. 7, d), or they may not. Whether this does or does not happen, the agitation of the sphere now becoming intense, one or more filaments are suddenly shot out from its periphery and at once begin to indulge in characteristic waving, lashing movements (Fig. 7, e)[1] The granular spheres do not project these filaments or microgametes.
In stained preparations it can be shown that the process of microgamete formation is preceded by fragmentation of the nucleus, the chromosomes proceeding to the periphery of the sphere and each becoming surrounded by a portion of protoplasm. The microgamete, therefore, is composed of these two elements drawn out into a thread—a chromatin filament enclosed in a covering of protoplasm. In the granular spheres there is no fragmentation of nucleus or filament formation, the minute nucleus remaining central surrounded by its circle of haemozoin rods.
The extruded microgametes, if they do not break away as already described, may continue to move for an hour, or even longer—that is, if the flagellated body be not engulfed by a phagocyte, an occurrence very frequently witnessed. Finally, they slow down, cease to move, coil up perhaps, and then gradually fade from view. Should the microgametes succeed in breaking away, the remains of the flagellated body consisting of haemozoin particles included in a small amount of residual protoplasm, tend to assume a somewhat spherical, passive form, the hitherto violent changes of shape and the movement of the haemozoin ceasing almost abruptly.
In other types of malarial infection certain bodies (Fig. 9, a, d), which, but for the brisk movements of their haemozoin, look like ordinary full-grown intra-
- ↑ Careful focusing, especially of stained crescent-derived spheres, may sometimes show that for a short time before their eruption the microgametes exist preformed inside the limiting membrane of the sphere (Fig. 7, e). One can sometimes see a microgamete filament, in its efforts to erupt, carry this membrane in front of it, and, failing to break through, retract and perhaps renew the effort at another point. Doubtless, the agitated movements of the sphere are produced by the efforts made by the microgametes to break through this membrane.
