234 D. D. CUNNINGHAM, 
On the DevELopmMENT of cERTAIN Microscopic OreGaNIsmMs 
OCCURRING in the IntESTINAL Cana. By D. D. Cunnine- 
HAM, M.B., Surgeon-Major, Indian Medical Service ; Fellow 
of the Calcutta University. With Plate XVIII. 
I. The Monads and Amebe of the Human Digestive Canal, 
Ar a time when the association of special parasites with 
morbid states of their host is readily interpreted as evidence in 
favour of current theories regarding the parasitic origin of 
disease, any exact information regarding the true significance of 
the phenomenon in particular cases may serve a useful purpose. 
It has, therefore, seemed desirable to endeavour to ascertain the 
nature of certain parasitic forms, which, im this country at all 
events, are specially related to cholera and certain other condi- 
tions in which the contents of the intestinal canal are of an 
abnormal character, and to determine the relation which they 
bear to those conditions. The intestinal contents in such cases, 
like those in health and in other forms of disease, abound in 
organisms of various kinds, but are specially characterised by 
the frequency with which they contain excessive numbers of 
what may be, provisionally, termed monads and Amebe. The 
excessive development of these bodies certainly bears a definite 
relation to the existence of abnormal conditions in the host, and 
the aim of the present paper is to show what the real nature of 
this relation is. 
The account given of the life-history, and of the mutual 
relations of the various bodies described, is founded on a pro- 
longed course of investigation, including a series of cultivation- 
experiments, carried out with the aid of various media and 
extending continuously over a period of more than a year, in 
order to determine the influence exerted on the course of develop- 
ment by variations in external conditions. To give a full 
account of all the observations would have occupied excessive 
space and have tended to obscure the general results of the 
inquiry in masses of detail. It has, therefore, seemed advisable, 
as far as possible, to avoid histories of individual experiments, 
and merely to introduce occasional illustrative cases regarding 
particular phenomena. All the more general statements are, 
however, founded on notes recorded during the course of the 
investigation and not on mere memory of results, and are there- 
1 This paper appeared as an appendix to the ‘ Fifteenth Annual Report 
of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India.’ 
