Some Remarks on the Genus Leucocytozoon

Abstract

A good deal of doubt still exists in many quarters as to the exact meaning of the term Leucocytozoon applied to certain Haematozoa. The term Leucocytozoaire was first used by Danilewsky in writing of certain parasites he had found in the blood of birds. In a later publication he uses the term Leucocytozoon for the same parasites though he does not employ it as a true generic title. In this latter sense it was first employed by Ziemann who named the parasite of an owl Leucocytozoon danilewskyi, thus establishing this parasite the type species of the new genus Leucocytozoon. It is perhaps hardly necessary to mention that Danilewsky and Ziemann both used this name because they considered the parasite in question to inhabit a leucocyte of the bird's blood. There has arisen some doubt as to the exact nature of this host-cell. Some authorities consider it to be a very much altered red blood corpuscle, some perhaps more correctly an immature red blood corpuscle, while others adhere to the original view of Danilewsky as to its leucocytic nature. It must be clearly borne in mind that the nature of the host-cell does not in any way affect the generic name Leucocytozoon. If it could be conclusively proved that the host-cell is in every case a red blood corpuscle the name Leucocytozoon would still remain as the generic title though it would have ceased to be descriptive.