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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO|
SIR,
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Enclosure 2 in No. 13.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF HELMINTHOLOGY.
I HAVE the honour to submit a report on the work of my Department for the half-year ending 31st October, 1923."
Staff. One change has occurred in the personnel of the Department during the past six months. Miss G. Z. L. Le Bas, who was appointed personal assistant by the Medical Research Council, resigned, and has been succeeded by Miss I. Hiles. The Research Staff, maintained by a grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, has been increased by the appointment as assistant of Dr. T. W. M. Cameron, M.R.C.V.S. At the present date, the staff is made up as follows
Director.-R. T. Leiper, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.
Medical Section.-H. H. Scott, M.D., M.R.C.P., F.R.S.E.; W. Y. Turner,
M.A., M.B., D.T.M.
Agricultural Section.-T. Goody, D.Sc.; R. J. Ortlepp, M.A., Ph.d.; T. W. M. Cameron, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D., M.R.C.V.S.; D. O. Morgan, B.Sc. Biochemical Section.-I. Hiles, M.Sc.
Teaching. One course of Medical Helminthology extending over a period of three weeks was given during the summer term.
Mr. G. S. Thapar, B.Sc., is taking an advanced course of study extending over a period of two years to qualify for the Ph.D. degree in the University of
London.
:
Collections.-Members of the Agricultural Section have continued to pay daily visits to the Zoological Gardens to collect parasites from animals which have died there, and the material has proved of value in the teaching of the School apart from the scientific interest.
Publications (a).—Catalogue of Periodicals of Medicine and the Allied Sciences, referred to in my previous report, has now been published under the auspices of the British Medical Association.
(b) Part 4 of Collected Papers (13) is in the press and contains the following original communications which had appeared in various Scientific Journals since March of this year, viz. :—
Markbreiter, Rita.Some Microfilariæ found in the blood of birds dying in the
Zoological Gardens.
Goodey, T., and Cameron, T. W. M.-Observations on the Morphology and life
history of Ascaris columnaris Leidy, a nematode parasite of the skunk. Vevers, G. M.-Observations on the Genus Paragonimus Braun with a re-
description of P. compactus (Cobbold, 1859, 1899).
Khalil, M.--On a Trematode from the Gall Bladder of Naja bungaris, with an
amendment of the Genus Xenopharynx. (Nicoll, 1912). Goodey, T.--Quiscence and Reviviscence of Nematodes, with special reference to
Tylenchus tritici and Tylenchus dipsaci.
Ortlepp, R. J.-Two new Nematodes collected in the Zoological Gardens of London. Cameron, T. W. M.-Studies on two new genera and some little known species of
the Nematode family Trichostrongylidae.Leiper. Cameron, T. W. M.-The Anatomy of Monodontus trigonocephalus (Rud) of Sheep. Ortlepp, R. J.-The Life-History of Syngamus trachealis (Montague) v. Siebold,
the Gape-Worm of Chickens.
Goodey, T.-A Review of the Plant Parasitic Members of the genus Aphelenchus. Cameron, T. W. M.-On the Morphology of Ollulanus tricuspis Leuckart, 1865, a
Nematode Parasite of the Cat.
Goodey, T.-Necator americanus and the Domestic Pig.
Ortlepp, R. J.--Observations on the Nematode Genera Kalicephalus. Diaphanocephalus and Occipitadontus, g.n., and on the Larval Development of Kalicephalus philodryadus, sp. n.
(c) The Journal of Helminthology, of which the first number was issued in March of this year, has since appeared regularly at bi-monthly intervals, and is providing for the prompt appearance of original communications by the staff and associated workers of the Department.
A considerable number of annual subscribers have already been registered, and it is encouraging to find that of these, many come from foreign countries, showing that the work of the School is widely appreciated.
57
General. During the autumn, I had the opportunity of visiting the laboratories for Parasitology in Holland, and of becoming personally acquainted with the Directors of the various institutions in Amsterdam, Leiden and Uttrecht.
I have, &c.,
Prof. R. T. LEIPER, F.R.S.,
per L.M.D. Sect.
22nd November, 1923.
Enclosure 3 in No. 13.
REPORT BY DR. JOHN G. THOMSON, DIRECTOR OF PROTOZOOLOGY, LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL Medicine, for the HALF-YEAR Ending 31st OctOBER, 1923:
DURING the summer and autumn terms, there were respectively fifty-nine and sixty-two students in the general course of the London School of Tropical Medicine, and these received the usual three weeks' tuition on the subject of Protozoology with special reference to those forms pathogenic to man. Mention, however, is also made of those forms which are of importance either from the point of view of comparative work or because of their economic significance. These two classes were taught by Dr. Andrew Robertson, Assistant in Protozoology, as I was absent on an expedition to Rhodesia, of which further mention will be made later. In addition to the general course, four advanced students had special courses in the Department. The advanced course for medical men is an eminently practical one, and is designed to follow in natural sequence the general course. It aims at teaching the technique necessary for laboratory work on Protozoa in the tropics.
One student from the Department has received the degree of B.Sc. (Hons.) in Zoology, with second-class honours at the October-November examination of the University of London. Her special subject was Protozoology with special reference to pathogenic forms. Dr. Robertson has been appointed internal examiner by the University for the academic year 1923-4. Miss M. J. Triffitt, who worked in the Department under a grant from the Privy Council, Scientific and Industrial Research Department, received the degree of M.Sc. for a thesis on the life cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi. Two cases
were studied in our laboratories which were infected with Dientamoeba fragilis, Jepps and Dobell, 1917. This parasite of man was originally found, but not reported, by Wenyon in 1909. Jepps and Dobell re-discovered it in 1917, and described seven cases. The two cases mentioned above accordingly make the second and third contributions to the literature and also serve to confirm the work of Jepps and Dobell.
An opportunity arose of studying the causative organism of rat-bite fever. Blood from an infected patient in the hospital was inoculated into laboratory animals, bred in the Department and accordingly free from infection, and a strain of the parasite was isolated. This organism was originally described as belonging to the genus Spirochaeta, later was changed to the genus Spironema, and at one time was even referred to as a Leptospira. There seems little doubt that all three are wrong and that, in all probability, it is a Spirillum. It has a more or less rigid body coiled up like a spiral spring-quite unlike the undulant nature of a Spironema and the coils rarely alter their relationship to each other. Motility is produced by terminal flagella. These flagella vary in number from one to about six, but there is some doubt as to whether these multiple flagella are not formed by the splitting of a single flagellum. In any event they seem to arise from a common point of origin. The organism multiplies by transverse, binary fission, and when division has occurred, the new individuals have flagella at one end only to begin with though later flagella are found at both ends. This work will be published in detail.
I left on the 3rd of March, on an expedition to Rhodesia to continue the work of the previous year on the causation of blackwater fever. At first, I attempted to confirm the work of Blanchard and Lefrou, who stated that, by means of a special technique, they had isolated a Leptospira from the blood of patients suffering from blackwater fever, but, after studying a series of cases, I was unable to demonstrate the presence of any Leptospira, but found in the blood after centrifugilization. by Blanchard and Lefrou's method, numerous fine threads or filaments which, with dark ground illumination, closely simulated Leptospira. This work will be published later.
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