386 PARASITIC I'KOTOZOA FOUND IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



was cansiderc^d too remote." AYith increasing knowledge, it is 

 probable that someone will be able to experiment successfully 

 and infect plants with the flagellates of human leishmaniases;* 

 the converse experiment of infecting vertebrates with plant- 

 inhabiting herpetomonads has already been done. 



A Chilomastix has been found in small numbers in the intes- 

 tine of adult Xcnopus Icevis in Johannesburg. Previously Chilo- 

 mastix has been recorded from various tadpoles in Europe by 

 Alexeieff in 1909, but I am not aware that it has been notified 

 before from any adult Amphibian. The species in tadpoles has 

 been named Chilomastix antllcriii by Alexeieff; perhaps the 

 flagellate now recorded fioiri adult Xenopus may prove to belong 

 to that species. 



A Chilomastix has also been observed by me in the small 

 intestine and caecum of guinea-pigs in Johannesburg. Unfortun- 

 ately, the infection M^as sparse. Apparently the flagellate is 

 Chilomastix intestinaJis Ivuczynski, 1914. 



Two cases of giardiasis in rabbits were investigated, Giardia 

 canicnU Bensen occurring in the small intestines of the rodents. 

 In neither case was diarrhoea obvious in life, but at post-mortem 

 slight enteritis was observed in each cadaver. 



Octomitus viuris Grassi was found in the diarrhoeic faeces of 

 a mouse in June. Flagellates were passed per anum, and the 

 dimensions of the bodies of two fully grown trophic forms drawn 

 were 9^ by 8(i and lOji by 4^i. The body of a perfectly formed, 

 smaller flagellate, apparently full grown, measured 4^, long h\ 

 l-5[i broad. This niay be a new variety, Octomitus min-is var. 

 ))ii}ior. 



Pleuromonas jaculans, a biflagellate usually occurring in 

 stagnant water and infusions, as well as in moist soil, was seen 

 in the rectal. contents of a dead fowl and in the freshly-passed 

 excrement of a water-tortoise, Emyt^ sp. The Pleuromonas in 

 these cases was a coprozoic flagellate. 



Sporozoa. 



From time to time a iew coccidian oocysts have been seen 

 in the faeces of sheep and goats. Mention was made of those in 

 sheep last yearf 



* iSince this paper was written, my suggestion made in 1915 on 

 information acquired in 1912 has obtained a wider significance and 

 importance, and exneriniental evidence in support of it has been set fortli. 

 Thus. Franchini {BiilL Sor. Path. Exot., xv, pp. 792—795, Nov., 1922) 

 has succeeeded in producing an infection of the plant, EupJinrbia 

 ipecacuanha, by inoculating healthy specimens of the plant with cultures 

 of the herpetomonad flagellate, Loi-'^li mania dovovmii, the causal agent of 

 Indian kala-azar in man. The infection with the flagellates caused obvious 

 disease in the olants experimented upon. The leishmania-infected plants 

 became yellow, their leaves fell, their development was partly arrested, 

 their shoots witliered and the latex became pale and very fluid, w-hile 

 control plants grew well. 



t This Journal, xviii, p. 166. 



