OF THE ALIMENTARY TRACT 103 



not as definitely rounded but of the same general 

 appearance as E. coli. The nucleus has a thin layer 

 of peripheral chromatin and the karyosome is ''dis- 

 persed" instead of compact. The particular char- 

 acteristics upon which it seems that the validity of 

 the genus must rest are : ( 1 ) the reproduction by bud- 

 ding from the cyst of eight offspring through a pore 

 on a chromaphile ridge, and (2) the number of chro- 

 mosomes, said to be eight as contrasted to six in E. 

 coli. 



Gunn (1922), Wenyon (1922), Wight and Prince 

 (1926), and others have denied the existence of the 

 process of budding, they having observed similar 

 processes occurring from cysts of E. coli as artifacts, 

 from pressure or other physical deformations, and at 

 least Wenyon (1926) questions the possibility of con- 

 sistent reliable counting of chromosomes in the divid- 

 ing nucleus of amoebae. 



Kofoid and his co-workers continue to adhere to 

 the specific points which they have reported. They 

 have also reported cultivation of C. lafleuri, in which 

 it remained distinct from E. coli, encystment in cul- 

 ture (Allen, 1926), the occurrence of species of 

 Councihnania in rodents (1923), the observation of 

 cysts of C. lafleuri in duodenal drainage, the occur- 

 rence of two additional species in the human intes- 

 tine ( 1928), and an incidence of 7.8% in 4763 persons 

 on 20,264 examinations (1924). 



The writer (1924), as previously recited, reported 

 upon an intestinal amoeba which had the character- 



