CHAPTER XIX 



THE SPECIES OF HUMAN AMCEB^ 



By 



Charles A. Kofoid 

 The University of California 



INTRODUCTION 



The amcebce of the human digestive tract offer an attractive 

 field for biological research, as do also those of other mammals. 

 Those of man are perhaps better known than are the amoebae of 

 any other vertebrate, but they still offer for this reason many 

 attractive opportunities for research along new lines. The fields 

 which have been opened by investigations to date may be grouped 

 according to the avenues of approach and the results aimed at, 

 in the categories of morphological, developmental, faunistic, 

 ecological, serological and immunological, diagnostic, medical, 

 therapeutic, sanitary, and preventive. 



The morphology of the amoebae of man is but partially known. 

 Published accounts and figures of most of the species are incom- 

 plete, often include aberrant or inadequately interpreted phases, 

 and have been made generally with little reference to the particular 

 environmental conditions under which their pseudopodia, cell con- 

 tents and nuclear structures have been investigated. A dynamic 

 morphology of some one of the several species found in man 

 would be a distinct addition to our knowledge and also of assist- 

 ance in interpreting the structural features found in the other 

 species. 



The particular morphological problems awaiting solution are 

 mainly cytological, such as the comparative study of the mito- 

 chondria and their relation (if any) to the chromatoidal bodies; 

 the search for a Golgi apparatus ; and the critical analysis of the 

 different so-called chromatins of the nucleus by the Fuelgen 

 method, with a view to the distinctions between the peripheral 



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