CERCOMOXAS AND TRICHOMONAS 495 



while in the two cases of non-syphilitic lesions studied they could not be 

 found. An anomaly exists in respect to Case IV., in which the spirals 

 were missed in stained preparations, while they appeared to be present 

 in the fresh state. No explanation can now be offered for this occurrence. 



Schaudinn and Hoffmann express themselves very guardedly regard- 

 ing the significance of the spirochaete. They point out its presence in 

 the typical lesions of the disease and its absence in the other forms of 

 venereal disease studied. Important confirmatory contributions have 

 come from Metchnikoff and Roux, who have demonstrated the same 

 organism in the lesions of acquired syphilis in man and in experimental 

 syphilis in the monkey and ape. In the last animals the material for 

 study was obtained from the primary lesions produced by inoculation 

 before ulceration had taken place. Additional confirmatory evidence 

 of importance as regards the distribution of the spirochaete is supplied 

 by the observation of Levaditi and Buschke and Fischer upon con- 

 genital syphilis. These writers found that organism in the pemphigus 

 bullae and papules of the skin, and, in cases coming to autopsy, in 

 films from the spleen and liver. Schaudinn reports that he has 

 obtained it also from splenic juice removed by aspiration from a 

 syphilitic patient. 



Metchnikoff and Roux draw attention to the irregularity of distribu- 

 tion of the organism as indicated by the variation in numbers upon the 

 cover-slips. Others have observed the same irregularity, but it is not 

 certainly established that the difference may not be due to the imper- 

 fect technique in staining. Metchnikoff and Roux and Levaditi prefer 

 a more rapid method of staining the films, namely, that of Marino, 

 which, up to the present, we have used but little. Should it serve as 

 good a purpose as the slower eosin-azur, and should future study con- 

 firm the etiological position of the spirochaete, a rapid and useful and 

 perhaps even a specific method of diagnosis would be afforded. Since 

 the organism exists in the primary lesions and the glands of the groin 

 in a demonstrable form, and since fluid from each can be obtained 

 easily, with the infliction of little pain to the patient, and without in 

 any way prejudicing the progress of his disease, we may look for a 

 general study of the fluids obtained from these sources in suspicious 

 and established forms of venereal disease with reference both to the 

 occurrence and the specificity of spirochaete pallida. 



CERCOMONAS. 



Subclass: Flagellata. 



Order: Protomonadina. 



Genus: Cercomonas. 



The members of this genus are round or oval flagellates with a long 

 anterior flagellum and a more or less pointed posterior one which is 

 sometimes amoeboid. The vesicular nucleus is situated anteriorly and 

 lying near it are one or two contractile vacuoles. Division into two 

 daughter forms has been observed. 



