A study of some fatal cases of malaria / by Lewellys F. Barker.

  • Barker, Lewellys F. (Lewellys Franklin), 1867-1943.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A study of some fatal cases of malaria / by Lewellys F. Barker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    examination, however, fine malarial pigment, yellowish-brown in color, arranged often in lines, and not enclosed within cells, can be made out in many of the malpighian bodies lying in the interspaces between the lymphoid cells. The Kidney.—An examination of many glomeruli shows consider- able variation in the size of the capsular spaces. While in some instances the glomerulus almost completely fills out Bowman's capsule, the space being a mere chink, in others the latter is equal in size to one-third of the whole capsule. The space is not always empty but may contain coagulated albumin, red blood corpuscles and shadows, or a few mononuclear cells (desquamated epithelium). The fibrous capsules are not thickened except occasionally where an atrophied glomerulus is visible. Frequently just outside the capsule of Bowman a narrow clear space can be made out, and this may contain a few cells, chiefly polyuuclear leucocytes, or even be crowded with them. In many of the capsules the capsular epithelium is evidently pro- liferated, the whole inside of the space being lined by nuclei with intensely staining chromatin. The glomerular capillaries vary in their size and contents; some of them are empty, others are dis- tended. Occasionally one is seen to be plugged with streptococci. The number of white corpuscles within the glomerular capillaries also varies ; they are very irregularly distributed; in some glomeruli scarcely any are present; in others one two or more of the glomerular capillaries may be packed full of polynuclear leucocytes. In a section stained in methylene blue, a capillary is visible plugged at one point with streptococci and crowded throughout the rest of its extent with leucocytes with polymorphous nuclei,—reminding one forcibly of the appearance of the capillary glass tubes in an experiment in positive chemotaxis. On the other hand masses of cocci may be seen with no neighboring leucocytic accumulation. The nuclei of the polynuclear leucocytes vary in appearance; some stain sharply and take on the ordinary forms; others stain less sharply, have a blurred look and assume bizarre shapes. The protoplasm of the polynuclear leucocytes frequently contains granules or minute clumps of granules of malarial pigment, occasionally a well-formed parasite or short chains of cocci. There is some malarial pigment in the glomeruli contained within the protoplasm of mononuclear cells. The majority of the malarial parasites in the glomerular capillaries are outside nucleated cells.