26 Objects Seen in Cholera Evacuations. [part i. 



two of freshly drawn blood was introduced. This time a very slightly granular 

 white cell was seen to alter its form and protrude one or two vesicles from its 

 substance (5), and draw them in again, which it continued to do for a few 

 minutes, then ceased, becoming more granular than it was before. Others were 

 observed to act in the same way ; one pale white cell was seen to possess a very 

 delicate filmy capsule, extending some distance beyond the contents (6) ; it 

 suddenly vanished altogether, leaving a merely irregular granular heap to mark its 

 position. 



The fourth class (it will be more convenient to consider the third afterwards), 

 namely, the various stages of the animalculse, was for a considerable time the 

 subject of much curiosity, especially the kind described as presenting such activity. 

 The fact of their being almost universally present in choleraic dejecta, and yet 

 never, as far as I know, alluded to, except indeed that Thiersch of Erlangen 

 could have seen one of these on the point of passing into the " still " condition, 

 during which stage pseudopodia are incessantly projected in all directions, when he 

 speaks of having observed actinophrys-like bodies in some choleraic dejecta which 

 he had examined, and wondered what they were.* There was some difficulty in 

 tracing this body to any of the described species of animalculse. Its minute and 

 j:apid motien added to the difficulty, as well as the variableness of its shape, because 

 although generally spindle-shaped, it may become round, triangular, or stellate in less 

 than a second ; frequently a succession of pseudopodia are seen projected in a wave-like 

 manner, as if lashing the fluid when about to pass out of the active state. It is 

 generally hyaline, but may be granular ; sometimes a vacuole is observed, but a 

 contractile one never. There is always a very delicate posterior filament, at first 

 continuous with the sarcode, and a still more delicate anterior one, both retractile. 



In some respects it agrees with the description of the Monad Bodo, but as 

 Cienkowski, in his celebrated article in Schulze's " Archiv," distinctly states that in 

 the amoebiform stage of all the true monads the pseudopodia are pointed, whilst 

 in the amoebiform stage of this animalcule the projections are, I think, invariably 

 rounded, so that for this and other reasons, which need not be entered into here, 

 room may probably be found for them among the Astasiaea or Euglensea family, so 

 common in our tanks. The association of a cholera entozoon with the euglena, one 

 species of which, when in its mature condition, causes the red colour observed in so 

 many pools, and which Ehrenburg thought was the means- by which the miracle 

 was brought about of turning the waters of Egypt into blood, — the finding of 

 precisely similar animalculse in drains, gave rise, as may be supposed, to not a few 

 very pretty theories, which, I regret to say, like many others, had to be abandoned 

 altogether. 



* The animalculEe alluded to in this Report do not in any way resemble the figures of the actinophrys-like 

 protozoa accompanying Dr. Sanderson's account of his celebrated experiments published in Mr. Simon's Ninth 

 Repprt. 



