134 



X. 



NOTES ON CERTAIN OTHER AMOEBOID ORGANISMS 

 DESCRIBED FROM MAN. 



I HAVE already had occasion, in the precedmg pages, to notice a 

 number of questionable amoebae which have been described from human 

 beings. Some at least of these are probably not really amoebae, but 

 other organisms or even cells belonging to the human body. Many of 

 the " amoebae " found in urine, for example, undoubtedly belong to 

 this last category. There are, however, several other " amoebae " which 

 have not yet been discussed, but which must be mentioned in any work 

 which aims at dealing with all the amoebae of man. 



It has already been noted that the "amoebae" described originally 

 by Lambl (i860) were, in all probability, not amoebae but Trichomonas. 

 It has also been noted that the original " giant amoebae " of Kartulis 

 (1885), from cases of dysentery, were also probably not amoebae, though 

 what they really were I have been unable to determine. In addition, 

 we have seen that the amoebae described by Noc (1909), Gauducheau's 

 (1908) "Entamoeba phagocytoides," and several other amoebae supposed 

 to be more or less parasitic in man, were all either free-living organisms 

 or mixtures of these with one or other of the amoebae which really 

 live in the human intestine. It is not necessary to say more about 

 these "species" here, and I shall therefore now confine my attention to 

 certain other "amoebae" which have not yet been discussed. 



The Amoebae cultivated from Human Stools and Liver-abscess Pus. — 

 It is now generally recognized that none of the amoebae of man can be 

 cultivated in the media ordinarily used for the cultivation of free-living 

 forms : and it will now be generally admitted that all the species obtained 

 in cultures made from stools or from liver-abscess pus belong to the 

 latter category. The following " species," which have been named, have 

 been cultivated from human faeces : 



Amoeba lobosa gnttula, A. lobosa oblonga, A. spinosa, A, diaphana, 

 A. vermicularis, A. reticularis — all described and named by Celli and 

 Fiocca (1894 a). 



Amoeba gruberi Schardinger (1899). 



Entamoeba tropicalis Lesage (1908). 



Amoeba hominis Walker (1908). 



Amoeba lobospinosa Craig (1912), 



There are others, but these are the species most often cited, or con- 

 fused with the amoebae living in man. In my opinion not one of these 

 species, with the exception of Schardinger's,* is identifiable from the 



* This is the organism rtr\a.mtA" Amoeba piinctaia" by Dangeard (1910) — an easily 

 recognizable and common form which has been frequently studied and almost as 

 frequently named. 



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