MICROSCOPIC ORGANISMS IN INTESTINAL CANAL. 289 
defined capsule. Within this, as a rule, we find a thin layer of 
granular matter surrounding a dense mass of minute circular 
Fic, 26.—A, Sporangoid mass x 44. B, Sporules x 1000. 
sporoid bodies measuring about 1°8 « in diameter. The develop- 
ment of these sporangia has not been followed out, so that their 
true nature remains uncertain. 
The principal conclusions which seem to be warranted as the 
result of these investigations have been already stated in the 
course of the narrative, but in concluding, it may be well to 
bring them together into a continuous series. They are as 
follows : 
1. Special parasitic forms may be specially associated with 
particular forms of disease without holding any causal relation 
to them. 
2. The monadic, amcebal and sporoid bodies, so abundant in 
many choleraic excreta, are all developmental forms of one 
species of parasite which I propose to call Protomyxomyces 
coprinarius. 
3. This parasite appears to be closely related to the organisms 
included within the Protist groups of Protomonadine and 
Myxomycetes, and in certain respects seems to represent a con- 
necting link between them. 
4. It is not confined to choleraic or even to human excreta 
as a basis, and only attains its full development external to the 
bodies of the animals within which it occurs. 
5. Its immature forms occur parasitieally as normal inmates 
of the digestive canal in certain of the lower animals. 
6. In the human subject, both in health and disease, they are 
very frequently present in varying numbers. 
7. During health the number and activity are limited, due 
to repressive influences exerted by the normal intestinal con- 
tents as a medium. 
8, Their excessive abundance in certain forms of disease is 
