sporozoites, occupying the whole spore. One sp., S. stolci, from
Clitellio and Hemitubifex.
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| From Lankester’s Treatise on Zoology, vol. Protozoa. |
| Fig. 9.—Spores of Actinomyxidia (after Stolc). |
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a, Hexactinomyxon psammoryctis (par. Psammoryctes
barbatus). |
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| From Wasielewski’s Sporozoenkunde. | |
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Fig. 10.—A. Sarcosporidia in the ox; a transverse section of the oesophagus, natural size, showing the parasites in the outer (a, b, c, d, e) and inner (f, g, h) muscular coats. B. Longitudinal section of a muscle-fibre containing a Sarcosporidian parasite, × 60. |
3. Order—Sarcosporidia. With the exception of one or two forms occurring in reptiles, these parasites are always found in warm-blooded Vertebrates, usually Mammals. They are of common occurrence in domestic animals, such as pigs, sheep, horses and (sometimes) cattle. A Sarcosporidian has also been described from man. The characteristic habitat is the striped muscle, generally of the oesophagus (fig. 10, A) and heart, but in acute cases the parasites overrun the general musculature. When this occurs, as often happens in mice, the result is usually fatal. Unless, however, the organisms thus spread throughout the body, the host does not appear to suffer any serious consequences. In addition to the effects produced by the general disturbance to the tissues, the attacked animals have apparently to contend—at any rate in the case of Sarcocystis tenella in the sheep—with a poison secreted by the parasite. For Laveran and Mesnil (27) have isolated a toxine from this form, which they have termed sarcocystin.
In the early stages of growth, a Sarcosporidian appears as an elongated whitish body lodged in the substance of a muscle-fibre; this phase has long been known as a “Miescher’s tube,” or Miescheria. The youngest trophozoites that have been yet observed (by Bertram, 1) were multinucleate (fig. 11, A), but there is no reason to doubt that they begin life in a uninuclear condition. The protoplasm is limited by a delicate cuticle. With growth, organellae corresponding to the Myxosporidian pansporoblasts are formed by the segregation internally of little uninuclear spheres of protoplasm. At the same time, a thick striated envelope is developed around the parasite, which later comes to look like a fur of fine filaments. The probable explanation of this feature (given by Vuillemin, 44) is that it is due to the partial breaking down of a stiff, vertically (or radially) striated external layer (fig. 12, A), such as is seen in Myxidium lieberkühnii. Immediately internal to this is a thin, homogeneous membrane, which sends numerous partitions or septa inwards; these divide up the endoplasm into somewhat angular chambers or alveoli (fig. 12). In each chamber is a pansporoblast, which divides up to produce many spores; hence the spores formed from different pansporoblasts are kept more or less separate. The pansporoblasts originate, in a growing Sarcosporidian, at the two poles of the body, where the peripheral endoplasm with its nuclei is chiefly aggregated. More internally, spore-formation is in progress; and in the centre, pansporoblasts full of ripe spores are found.
By this time the parasite has greatly distended the muscle-fibre in which it has hitherto lain, absorbing, with its growth, practically all the contractile-substance, until it is surrounded only by the sarcolemma and sarcoplasm. It next passes into the adjacent connective-tissue, and in this phase has been distinguished from Miescheria as Balbiania, under the impression that the two forms were quite distinct. In the later stages, the parasite may become more rounded, and a cyst may be secreted around it by the host’s tissue. In these older forms, the most centrally placed spores degenerate and die, having become over-ripe and stale.
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After Bertram, from Wasielewski’s | |
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Fig. 11.—Stages in the growth of Sarcocystis tenella of the sheep. A, Youngest observed stage in which the radially striated outer coat has not appeared; the body of the trophozoite is already divided into a number of cells or pansporoblasts (k). B and C, Older stages with numerous pansporoblasts and two envelopes, an inner membrane and an outer radially striated layer. |
With regard to the spores themselves and what becomes of them, our knowledge is defective. Two kinds of reproductive germ have been described, termed respectively gymnospores (so-called sporozoites, “Rainey’s corpuscles”) and chlamydospores, or simply spores. It seems probable that the former serve for endogenous or auto-infection, and the latter for infecting fresh hosts. Unfortunately, however, both kinds of germ are not yet known in the case of any one species. The gymnospores, which are the more commonly found (e.g. in S. muris, S. miescheriana of the pig, and other forms), are small sickle-shaped
