We felt ourselves justified in
recognizing the malarial ferment in the _schizomycete bacillus_. The
numerous researches made subsequently by us, and by many other observers,
in the soil and in the air of several malarious localities, as well as in
the blood and in the organs of men and animals specifically infected, have
put it henceforth almost beyond doubt that we really have to do with a
schizomycete. Very recently, MM. Marchiafava and Celli have succeeded in
demonstrating that the germs of this schizomycete attack directly the red
blood-globules, and destroy them, causing them to undergo a series of very
characteristic changes which admit of easy verification, and which render
certain the existence of a malarial infection.
Several observations made recently in Rome tend to demonstrate that the
schizomycete of malaria does not always assume the complete bacillary form
described by Klebs and myself; but this morphological question possesses
no further interest for the hygienist. For him the essential thing is to
know that he has to deal with a living ferment which can flourish in soils
of very varied composition, and without the presence of which neither
marshes nor stagnant pools of water are capable of producing malaria.
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