ARTIFICIAL ACIDOSIS IN TRYPANOSOMA LEWISI INFECTIONS, AND ITS BEARING ON THE PATHOGENIC ACTION OF TRYPANOSOMA EQUIPERDUM

When the alkali reserve is artificially lowered in rats infected with Trypanosoma lewisi, the number of parasites in the blood is increased. The increase is large in the early stages of the disease, and becomes less marked as the number crisis is approached. Near the crisis, and after it, a lowered alkali reserve does not affect the number of trypanosomes. It has been shown that the observed increase does not result from a contraction of the capillaries of the inner organs, which would throw a large number of trypanosomes into the peripheral circulation; nor is the increase due to a greater reproductive activity on the part of the trypanosomes. The increase must, therefore, be due to an inhibition of the destructive forces of the host. It is suggested that the known production of organic acids by the pathogenic trypanosomes plays a similar rôle in inhibiting the destructive mechanism of the host, and is therefore of significance in the pathogenic activity of these organisms.