| Date | 1847 |
| Author | Meckel |
| Contribution | Observed black pigment inside protoplasmic masses in blood of fatal case of malaria. |
| Reference | Harrison |
| Notes | Heinrich Meckel von Helmsbach. Presumably was looking at the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. The black pigment was well known in spleen, liver and brain of victims, but Meckel saw it in blood, within protoplasmic bodies (round, ovoid or spindle-shaped), and realized that it was carried in blood to other tissues. Apparently did not postulate parasitic causation. According to Bruce-Chwatt and de Zulueta (see Afanasiev) Virchow's drawing of "these bodies" was published in 1858 in Frerichs' atlas of diseases. Pigment was later reported by many others including Schultz 1848, Planer 1854, Delafield 1872, Jones 1876 (see Kean, Mott and Russell). |
| Category | Miscellany |
| Pathogen Class | Protozoa |
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