OF THE ALOIENTARY TRACT 177 



to the presence of the organism, beyond the control 

 group. 



It should be recorded that none of these Chilo- 

 mastix hosts suffered from arthritis deformans, since 

 Barrow (1924) found 94% of 79 cases of this disease 

 to harbor this parasite. 



The natural habitat of Chilomastix mesiiili is the 

 colon, particularly the caecum. There it lives only 

 as a lumen dweller, so far as is known. Wenyon 

 (1926) found it in the lumen of the glands of the 

 colon. It has not been observed as a tissue invader. 



It is not known to cause any local degenerative or 

 inflammatory change and the conjectured pathologic 

 state produced by it is virtually narrowed down to a 

 state of ''toxemia," of which there is only circum- 

 stantial evidence. 



Castex and Green way (1925) are among the latest 

 to promote such a role for the organism, they finding 

 it in 118 of 614 cases of "chronic intestinal toxemia," 

 in which they were of the opinion that the organism 

 was the pathogenic factor and essential cause of the 

 different toxic symptoms in the 49 cases of ''pure 

 infection." 



TREATMENT 



Preventive. Since Chilomastix mesnili thrives in 

 spite of modern sanitary precautions against the 

 spread of infection, it is to be suspected that person to 

 person transmission is the important method in mod- 

 ern civilized communities. More careful observance 



