MUCUS. 135 



not practically familiar with its appearance, and the mode of 

 detecting it. Thus it presents nearly the same size, form, 

 granular structure, and colour [as the mucous corpuscles 

 alluded to ; it is to be distingushed from these, however, by 

 the independent locomotive power which it possesses, the 

 movements which it performs being produced principally by 

 means of a long lash or cilium with which its anterior ex- 

 tremity is furnished, and the presence of which causes the 

 animal to lose somewhat its circular contour, and assume a 

 form approaching the oval ; in addition to this long cilium, 

 three or four other shorter cilia exist, which surround the 

 mouth, and which can only be satisfactorily detected when 

 the motions of the animalcule become somewhat retarded. 

 (See Plate XII. Jig. 6.) In order that it may be seen alive 

 and in active movement, it is necessary that the mucus con- 

 taining it should be submitted to examination as soon as 

 possible after its removal from the vagina ; the animal once 

 dead, it is then almost impossible to distinguish it from a 

 mucous corpuscle. 



M. Donne, on first discovering this parasite, was for some 

 time in doubt as to whether its occurrence was to be re- 

 garded as having any connection with the specific disorders of 

 which the vagina is sometimes the seat, and he has at length 

 arrived at the conclusion that no such relation as that sus- 

 pected exists, and that any inflammation, specific or otherwise, 

 sufficiently active to give rise to the secretion of puriform 

 matter, may be accompanied by the tricho-monas which has 

 been described. 



In addition to the positive characters which have been in- 

 dicated, denoting the presence of this animalcule, there is 

 another altogether indirect which serves to signalise its ex- 

 istence in the vaginal mucus, and this is the presence in it 

 of air-bubbles which are not encountered in healthy mucus. 



Vaginal Vibrios. 



The tricho-monas is not the only animalcule which lives 

 in the mucus of the vagina ; there are frequently met with 



M 3 



