19^0] Kofoid: Nomendature of Human Intestinal Flagellates 157 



that this may be a distinct sjjecies also ; but more data are desirable 

 on this matter. 



The discoverer of the flagellate of the mouth was 0. F. JliiUer, 

 the early Danish explorer of the microfauna of ponds and ditches, who 

 ransacked a culture made from the tartar between dirty human teeth 

 and found therein (1773, 1776) and figured (1786) tiny organisms 

 which he included in his genus Cercaria as C. teimx, together with 

 dinoflagellates and larval stagas of trematodes. These parasites from 

 the mouth have not the slightest relation to larval trematodes, though 

 their possession of a short tail afforded a justification for this alloca- 

 tion in the days of medieval morphology and systematics. His 

 diminutive sketches show no flagella but the pj^riform shape and the 

 short asymmetrically curved, pointed, posterior projection are sugges- 

 tive of the projecting axostyle and flagellum of TricJtomonas. 



Bory de Saint Vincent (1824) in one of the last volumes of the 

 " Encyclopedie Methodique" {fide Moquin-Tandon, 1860, p. 400) 

 established the genus Virgulina for tailed animalcules and included 

 therein Miiller's species V. pirenula. 



In 1838-1845 Mandl {fide Moquin-Tandon, 1860) rediscovered 

 Miiller's animalcules in the tartar about human teeth subjected 

 to microscopical examination in distilled and boiled water. He 

 records their dimensions a.s from 0.05 to several hundredths of a milli- 

 meter, possibly a typographical error for 0.005, and notes their lively 

 movements. They were said to contain in their bodies calcareous 

 elements which contribute to the deposition of tartar of the teeth. 



Moquin-Tandon (1860) in his "Elements de Zoologie Medicale" 

 revives Miiller's name tenax, follows Mandl in referring it to Bory's 

 genus Virgulina and rejects Bory's specific name pirenula. He notes 

 the prevalence of this organism in the tartar of patients on low diet 

 for several months and states that it forms the greater part of the 

 mucus coat on the tongue of persons with disturbed digestion. Neither 

 Mandl (1838-1845), nor Moqiiin-Tandon (1860), nor any subsequent 

 investigator of the flagellates of the human mouth, seems to have noted 

 the resemblance of [Miiller's speci&s to Trichomonas; and Davaine 

 (1854, 1860), Leuckart (1863), and all svibsequent investigators of 

 the flagellates of the human digestive tract seem to have overlooked 

 Miiller's discovery and its possible relation to the organisms with 

 which they were dealing. 



Since only one flagellate from the human mouth has thus far been 

 definitely identified in the course of modern investigation of the 



