138 THE AMOEBAE LIVING IN MAN 



generic names (a flagellate and an amoeba), until adequate evidence can 

 be produced in favour of its retention. 



"Amoeba pyogenes Vcvdvin & Bruyant, 1907." — This name has been 

 given to an amoeba found in the pus from an abscess in the malar 

 region by Verdun and Bruyant (1907, 1907 rt). It is said to be actively 

 motile and to measure 20-35 H' '" diameter, with a nucleus of 8-15 fj, ; 

 and to form cysts measuring 6-15 /x and containing from one to four 

 nuclei. The endoplasm is described as granular, and filled with digestive 

 vacuoles containing red blood corpuscles and leucocytes. According to 

 its describers the species resembles "Amoeba coli Losch" {i.e., E. histo- 

 lytica), and the organisms found in similar situations by Kartulis, Fle.xner, 

 and others {i.e., probably E. gingivalis). 



In my opinion this species was probably a mixture of E. gingivalis 

 and cells of various sorts. At present there is insufficient evidence for 

 regarding it as new. Smith and Barrett (1915, 1915 a), however, regard 

 it as probably an independent species — related to, or possibly identical 

 with, some very questionable "amoebae " found by Ribbert in Stensen's 

 duct. They also suggest that it has affinities with " E. mortinataliinn," 

 mentioned below. 



The Amoebae described by McCarrison (1909). — I have already identified 

 two of the intestinal amoebae studied by McCarrison (1909). His 

 " Amoeba I " vi'as certainly, as he supposed, E. coli. His " Amoeba II " 

 was equally certainly a name given to cells from the intestine — not to 

 E. histolytica as he surmised. It only remains to add that the "third 

 amoeboid body" which he briefly described and figured was undoubtedly 

 the flagellate Giardia {=Laniblia) inlestinalis, and therefore not an 

 intestinal amoeba at all. 



" Endamoeba mortinatalinnt Smith & Weidman, 1910." — Smith 

 and Weidman described, in 1910,* some "amoebae " which they found 

 in the kidneys, liver, and lungs of a still-born foetus. They subse- 

 quently described another similar "infection" in a 2-months old 

 syphilitic child (Smith and Weidman, 1914). The amoebae in both 

 cases were believed to be of the same species, for which the name 

 E. mortinataiium was proposed. Smith and Weidman (1914) state that 

 similar "protozoa" had been found in the kidneys of a syphilitic new- 

 born infant by Ribbert, and later by the same worker in the parotid 

 glands of non-syphilitic children ; and that Jesionek and Kiolemenoglou 

 found similar bodies in the kidneys, liver, and lungs of a syphilitic 

 foetus. Smith and Weidman consider their " amoebae " to be identical 

 "' with those in at least Ribbert's first case and in that of Jesionek and 

 Kiolemenoglou." 



" E. mortinataiium" is described as an amoeba measuring usually 

 22-30 fi in diameter. Its nucleus is from one third to one half the 

 diameter of the whole organism, and contains a large central 

 karyosome. It should be noted that the "organism" was never seen 

 alive, so that although " pseudopodia " are mentioned there is no 

 evidence of its motility. From the figures and description I am entirely at 

 a loss to know why the bodies in question are regarded as amoebae at all. 



• According to .Smith and Weidman (1914) their first paper was published in the 

 University of Pennsylvania Medical Bulletin, 1910, but I have not been able to 

 consult it. 



