1923] Kofoid-Swezy : Pentatrichomonas ardin delteili 377 



The third case was a female school teacher resident for eighteen 

 years in the Hawaiian Islands. Fifteen examinations have been made 

 to date of this case, all positive for Pentatrichomonas, but no other 

 infection, either protozoan or helminth, has been detected. There is 

 no clinical history of amoebic dysentery in this case. 



In all three eases there is a record of a chronic diarrhoea with 

 purulent, fetid, yellowish-brown stools, rarely with mucus, with but 

 little or no blood, and of a smooth consistency. Defecation was 

 frequent, sometimes as many as twenty stools a day. Semi-formed 

 or formed stools rarely occurred. The customary palliative measures 

 failed to give relief. Microscopic examination revealed enormous 

 numbers of Pentatrichomonas swarming in the fluid stool. In semi- 

 formed stools the numbers were lessened. 



These three infections, all with similar symptoms and stools, 

 preisented only Pentatrichomonas with five flagella, never Tricho- 

 monas hominis with four ; at least we found only the former in every 

 critical determination of the number of anterior flagella. We there- 

 fore conclude that Pentatrichomonas is distinct from Trichomonas. 



Generic status is desirable for Pentatrichomonas in view of the 

 general use of the number of flagella as the basis of generic distinction 

 in the Polymastigina. We therefore utilize the generic name proposed 

 by Chatterjee (1915). The species was originally described by Der- 

 rieu and Raynaud (1914) as Hexamastix ardin delteili from a fatal 

 case of diarrhoea originating in Algiers but observed in Paris. It was 

 also described at about the same time by Chatterjee (1915) as Penta- 

 trichomonas bengalensis from a case of chronic diarrhoea at Calcutta. 

 Mesnil (1915tf, b) noted the similarity of the two organisms, called 

 attention to the preoccupation of Hexamastix by a different flagellate 

 described by Alexeieff (1912) and recognized the availability of 

 Pentatrichomonas as the generic name. He held open the possibility 

 of specific distinctness of the Algerian and Indian species. The 

 nature of the similarities of the two, however, and the great varia- 

 bility of the species in our material make it certain, in our opinion, 

 that the two supposed species are identical. Chatterjee (1917) 

 later reported this species in 32 of 70 cases of flagellate diarrhoeas 

 observed at Calcutta. Wenyon and 'Conner (1917) reported one 

 observation of a five-flagellated trichomonad from man observed in 

 Egypt. Haughwout (1918, 1919, 1920) reported Pentatrichomonas 

 in cases of diarrhoeas at Manila and described the method by which 

 they engulf and seemingly digest red blood cells with which they 



