Fuller's curiosity prompted him to inquire as to what would follow this fixation; but knowledge of the other's habits of mind forbade this.
"About all that is known of the parasite for which I am going to seek," said Ashton-Kirk as he stood by the tray, watch in hand, "is due in the first place to a French army surgeon named Laveran. After him came the Italian, Marchiafava, the German, Koch, and a number of others. There is a monograph upon the subject by Mannaberg which is most comprehensive."
"What sort of a little beast is it?" asked Fuller.
"A lively, wriggling atom—a unicellular organism, directly upon the border-land between the animal and vegetable kingdoms."
"That sounds very exact and scientific," said the other. "But it means little to me."
"The young specimens of the plasmodia, as this particular germ is styled, develop in the red blood cells; and as they grow they destroy their habitation. I could tell you of interesting changes of color in the blood corpuscles, of the active, joyous dancing of the parasite, and of its multiplication by sporulation. But not now. All this, however, is repeated again and again; and each sporulation of the parasite is usually associated with marked symptoms in the person whose blood it inhabits."
"You speak as though you expected to find some such condition in this," and Fuller nodded toward the blood smear.
"I expect nothing. I am merely about to prove or disprove a suggestion."