132 PROTOZOAN PARASITISM 



cidence of arterial disease occurring in the flagellate 

 hosts. 



A condition of chronic appendicitis — thought by 

 some physicians to be sometimes produced by intes- 

 tinal protozoa — was diagnosed in 22% of the fla- 

 gellate infested and in 25% of the free. 



Diarrhoea, the condition longest and most com- 

 monly ascribed to the flagellates, was present at the 

 time of examination or conspicuous in the past his- 

 tory of 9% of the parasitized and 8% of the free. 

 When diarrhoea was present there was no gross or 

 microscopic characteristic feature. It was impos- 

 sible to say that a watery stool or a frothy gassy stool 

 was distinctive of the presence of flagellates. Con- 

 stipation was much more prominent but of practically 

 the same proportion in both groups, 57% of the 

 parasitized and 55% of the free. 



The benzidine test for chemical blood in the stool 

 was positive in 67% of the flagellate hosts and 71% 

 of the others, this observation being considered only 

 of comparative significance. Similarly to be used 

 is a clinical opinion of colitis in 6% of the parasitized 

 and 119^ of the free. 



Blood counts and haemoglobin estimations re- 

 vealed no apparent differences between the two 

 groups, and nothing could be made of any attempt to 

 relate various nervous system disturbances, which 

 may be indicated by the term ''neurasthenia," to the 

 parasitized group more than the other. 



Arthritis deformans, which Barrow (1924) found 



