130 VEGETABLE PAEASITES. 



(spores) can be seen in the space between the filaments. The 

 filaments depend sometimes from a kind of stem, but there is no 

 branching or movement of the filaments, nor are there sporangia 

 or clearly, spores present. The Yibriones are very small, but 

 are always mixed with epithelial.cells, mucus- and pus-globules, 

 and molecular particles. Individual filaments are found free in 

 the saliva .(Lebert). 



The soil on which these plants grow is the decomposing 

 deposits of food which lie between the papillae of the tongue 

 and their processes. 



These parasites may be found in great abundance and very 

 fine on the soft masses of food which collect between the teeth, 

 especially if they are allowed to accumulate for some days. 

 Wedl found them in the molecular masses which collect between 

 the tonsils in a dead body. In the stomach and small intestines 

 they frequently accumulate, and Robin has observed them in 

 the stools of typhus patients. 



Closely related to these are certain fibrillose and very numerous 

 corpuscles without any transverse division or branching. They 

 are thicker than the last, and about 0*014 to 024 mm. long. 

 They have a great tendency to break up transversely. They are 

 neither soluble in ether nor alcohol, nor are they changed by 

 heat or the caustic alkalies and mineral acids. These are per- 

 haps the filaments found free in the saliva by Lebert. According to 

 Wedl their nature is unknown, and he suggests they may be 

 Vibrios. Their envelopes, according to him, are composed of 

 silicic acid, whilst Biihlmann maintains they contain fluoric 

 acid. This resistance to reagents does not, however, appear to 

 be opposed to their vegetable nature, as we know that many 

 plants contain sufficient silica to resist the action of heat. 



These formations were known to Leeuwenhoek, who found 

 them present in forty-seven out of forty-nine healthy persons, so 

 that he regarded them as the result of uncleanliness. 



There is hardly any treatment to be described. The best 

 thing that can be done is to prevent their growth, by rinsing out 

 the mouth and using a tooth-brush after every meal. The tooth- 

 brush should be used on the inside as well as the outside of the 

 teeth. J . Gutman, in a little work entitled ( The Tooth-brush/ 

 has well observed that in the use of this instrument we should 

 not be satisfied with brushing across the teeth, but should brush 

 up and down from the gums to the crown of the teeth, whereby 



