Recently O. Roth1 reported unusual blood findings in a patient whose spleen had been removed twelve years before, because of supposed splenic anemia.† Numerically, the red corpuscles of Roth's patient varied between 5,600,000 and 6,468,000, the leukocytes between 8,900 and 16,000, while the hemoglobin fluctuated between 100 and 114 per cent. Thus, there was no anemia.
The microscopic examination of the fresh and stained specimens of blood revealed, as Roth points out, striking abnormalities. In the fresh specimen, it was evident that a large part of the erythrocytes presented one to two round, quite refractive inclusions. Generally, they were the size of a very small coccus, but at times the diameter amounted to one-sixth of that of the red cell. They moved slightly in the cell. When the blood was stained with Giemsa's mixture, it was seen that these bodies were structureless, sharply outlined and were stained red