INTI>IINAL PROTOZOA OF TERMITI -. 221 



wood as the workers and soldiers. When workers and soldiers 

 are wood starved the wood ingesting protozoa which they harbor 

 die first. When workers are fed cow chips the protozoa disap- 

 pear in three to four weeks. But here, as in the case of saliva, it 

 is impo ible to determine whether the change in the intestinal 

 content brought about by the change of food, results in the loss 

 of protn/M.i. or whether the failure of the host to provide the 

 A ith wo. nl ir-nlt- in their death. Since there is a ^reat 

 dr.ll d|" rellulo-e in the c,,\v i hips it is more likely that the change 

 in the intr-tiii.il content i- responsible for the death of the pro- 

 tozoa. I IK b.K teria of the cow chips do not kill the proto/ 

 f. n -triilr COW (hip- arc ju-t as effective in removing them This 

 |iie-tion i- now brin;^ aii.n krd from many angles ami it i- hoped 

 tliat a more deliuitr aii-\\er may result. 



Their i- ron-ider.tble difference of opinion re^ardin^ tin- extent 

 to which cellulo-e i- mili/rd in the animal organi-m. Very little 

 i- really knov.ii about the mechanism which vertebrates -and 

 most, it not all, invertebrates too employ in making n-e of 

 cellulo-e. It is intcrc-tin^ in this connection to compare the viev. - 

 e\ ; \v<> jirominent physiological cheini-' Hawk 



i that m.my of the herbivora use as much as 25 per 



cent, of r cd cellulose, that less than 5 per cent, i- 



u.-cd by doga and the amount used by man is "too -mall for it 

 to pi. iv a role of importance in the diet of a normal individual." 

 1 1, saj B: "In neither man nor the lower animal- lias there been 

 ( lrmoii-t rated .111 v formation of sugar or glycogen from crllnl- 

 Y,,n Furth IMI that 30-70 per cent, of the cellulose 



eaten by herbivon >u> doiu--tic animals is dige-trd, and that man 

 digests about 50 per cent, of the cellulose which he consumes, and 

 in , .f habitual coii-tipation he may dig much as 80 



prr cent. The tillered mammalian intestinal content i- inactive 

 to cellnlo-r i rrin^-heim, I)I9). Pringsheim (1919) also claim- 

 that no cellobio-r--plitiing enzNTnes are pre-ent in any of the 

 organs of cattle. Biery (1914), Bier\- and ( ".i.ija (1912 and 

 Hillard (1014) report the presence of cellulose-splitting enzymes 

 in hepatic secretion- of certain mollusks and cnisiace.ni-. Har- 

 rington (1921) claims to have demonstrated the pre-rncc of 

 cellulo-e--pliitin^ ni/ymes in Teredo. Dore and Miller (1923) 

 made a comparative analysis of the wood eaten and the borings 



