KLOSSIELLA INFECTION OF THE GUINEA PIG

We have found in the kidneys of twelve supposedly normal guinea pigs, coming from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a parasite that closely resembles in some of its phases Klossiella muris, described by Smith and Johnson, and the renal parasite of two West African guinea pigs, described by Seidelin. The forms most commonly found by us and described as the sporoblast cycle, are evidently similar to those described by Smith and Johnson and by Seidelin. There are certain discrepancies of measurement between the parasite described by Seidelin and the one here described, but the most important difference between the two is the different number of sporozoites resulting from a final division of the daughter sporoblasts. Seidelin has found thirty sporozoites; we have found from eight to twelve, while the usual number is eight. Further, we have found a ring form which is unlike any of the stages in either the sporoblast or schizogonic cycle, and which we interpret tentatively as the male element or microgamete. In addition, we have found a tubular form which resembles the glomerular body of Klossiella muris and which we think is the schizogonic phase of this parasite.