Anthrax When Griffith investigated in 1877 a fatal disease of horses that severely struck those of the British Army, he was quick to identify bacteria in all diseases animals. He identified the disease, which was then called "Loodiana disease" (after the city
Ludhiana) or "malignant fever," as anthrax. He reported his findings in
The Veterinary Journal in 1878. While identifying the anthrax bacteria from the horse blood under microscope, Griffith observed two other important pathological conditions. The first was that when he looked at the bacteria from fresh blood samples, the bacteria appeared to be surrounded more and more by certain white blood cells that were not present in the fresh samples.He had no means to further study this phenomenon, which is now known as
phagocytosis, a cellular process by which white blood cells protect by devouring pathogens. The phenomenon was discovered in its full form by Russian zoologist
Élie Metchnikoff in 1882, who received the 1908
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that established the science of immunology. An additional observation of Griffith was that in some horses, some horses had parasites in their blood and respiratory tract. Those were roundworms, but he did not know them. He suggested them to be kinds of worms, as he reported:I saw [in the blood sample] what I thought were bacteria swarming in it. I made a rather hasty conclusion, because I was thinking of Anthrax, and as this disease is commonly identified with it, I was really looking for bacteria. On closer inspection, I thought they were more likely to be blood-crystals: they resembled very closely the small prismatic crystals of Haematoglobulin
[haemoglobin]. I have since come to the conclusion that they are worms in a very early stage of development... Now, I do not know what these things are,—whether they belong to the animal or vegetable kingdom. I call them worms, because they are worm-like. I know very little about parasites. He sent the infected puppy from which Lewis confirmed the presence of parasites in the blood similar to his discovery. Steel believed that the parasite was a type of
spirochaete bacteria and named it
Spirochaeta evansi, honouring the original discoverer. After returning to England, Griffith continued the research with
Edgar Crookshank at King's College London. Crookshank identified the parasite as a kind of protozoan with similarity to the protozoan parasite of fish (
Haematomonas Mitrophanow, described in 1883) and renamed it as
Haematonomas evansi, but quickly changed it to
Trichomonas evansi. The correct description and the name
Trypanosoma evansi were given by a French veterinarian J. Chauvrat in 1896. Surra then was established as the first trypanosome disease (trypanosomiasis). == Awards and honours ==