PARASITES OF PROTOZOA 1033 



of the nuclei. The author regarded the micrococcus as a facultative 

 parasite, which multipHed in the body after ingestion. Mackinnon 

 (1914) reiported, in Entamoeba mmcbmi {Losch'm hartmanni) in tipuhd 

 larvae, a similar organism, which occurred in the nucleus as well as 

 in the cytoplasm; and she stated that Polymastix melolonthae and Mono- 

 cercomonas melolonthae are also infected. Micrococcus was reported by 

 Dangeard (1896) in Sappinia and by Wenyon (1907) in Entamoeba 

 muris. Granules filling the cytoplasm of Mastigina hylae, resembling 

 in size, shape, and distribution the bodies called micrococci by others, 

 were found by Sassuchin (1928b). He mentioned their resemblance 

 to Chytridiales, but no sporangia were shown. 



Cytoplasmic granules like micrococci were described by Alexeieff 

 (1912) in an amoeba, probably Lecythium sp., and in Tetramitus ros- 

 tratus. He considered these, however, to be produced by multiplication 

 of elementary corpuscles, existing as a corona of small granules around 

 an initial corpuscle. The initial corpuscle was a small spherule with a 

 central nucleus. He thought this to be a chlamydo2o5n, and named it 

 Chlamydozodn biltschlii. Later Alexeieff (1929) described the same 

 parasite in Monas vulgaris. The evidence, however, that these bodies 

 in amoebae and flagellates are filtrable viruses and his speculations on 

 the relationship of Chlamydozoa and Chytridiales are no more convinc- 

 ing to the reader than his argument that the parasite of cancer is a 

 chlamydozoon, which he named (1912) Chlamydozodn perniciosum. 

 The reports of Alexeiefl^ are considered here because of the possibility 

 that the granules described are bacterial parasites. The "initial cor- 

 puscles" are inclusions of another nature. 



Mercier (1910) found bacterial filaments made up of short rods 

 in Endamoeba blattae. Eventually they invaded the whole cytoplasm 

 of a parasitized amoeba, which disintegrated. He also observed granular 

 bodies, believed to be parasites, in the cytoplasm of cysts. 



Bacilli in masses in the cytoplasm of an amoeba, probably Vaht- 

 kampfa sp., grown on an agar plate, were considered by Epstein (1935) 

 to be parasites. There were no indications of digestion of the bacteria, 

 and the masses increased in volume. In consequence of the infection, 

 division was supposed to be delayed; the nuclei continuing to multiply, 

 several nuclei occurred in the hypertrophied bodies. This article does 

 not carry conviction; the possibility is not excluded that the large 



