80 The Philippine Journal of Science ms 



by Leger, whose classification I follow : Asporocystidaa, Disporo- 

 cystidae, Tetrasporocystidae, and Polysporocystidae. The two 

 genera we shall consider in this paper are the genus Isospora 

 and the genus Coccidium, belonging, respectively, to the families 

 Disporocystidae, in which the oocyst contains two sporocysts, and 

 Tetrasporocystidse, in which the oocyst contains four sporocysts. 



Within the past few weeks the department of medical zoology 

 has received material that apparently represents six different 

 kinds of coccidial infection. To Dr. H. Windsor Wade, of the 

 Bureau of Science, we are indebted for calling our attention 

 to an interesting parasite in the kidney of the guinea pig, which 

 may prove to be identical with Seidelin's Klossiella cobayae, a 

 member of the family Polysporocystidae. Dr. Edward S. Ruth, 

 of the department of anatomy, of the College of Medicine and 

 Surgery, has furnished us with material showing a coccidial 

 infection of undetermined nature in the testis of the house li- 

 zard. Dr. Elias Domingo, a graduate student in the depart- 

 ment of medical zoology, has recently found a Coccidium and a 

 species of Isospora in the intestinal tract of the house lizard. 

 In our own department we have found Isospora bigemina in the 

 intestine of kittens, while Coccidium cuniculi has been prev- 

 iously reported here in the rabbit. This latter is believed by 

 many authorities to be identical with the parasite that has been 

 reported in man. 



This immediately raises the question as to the specificity of 

 these parasites, and at the outset permit me to say that I con- 

 sider the matter to be far from settled. To be on the safe side, 

 however, it seems to me that we must assume that coccidial 

 infections in animals, of a kind that is apt to be found about 

 our houses, are a source of danger and should be so regarded 

 until the contrary is proved. Let me cite a few examples in 

 support of this contention. 



Trypanosoma (Schizotrypanum) cruzi,(i5) the cause of Cha- 

 gas fever in South America, was first seen in its invertebrate 

 host Conorhinus megistus, a blood-sucking hemipterous insect, 

 before it was found in the blood of human beings. Lynch, (13) 

 whose work calls for amplification, has described the rat as a 

 host of Entamoeba histolytica, the cause of entamoebiasis in man. 

 Lanfranchi(H) has recently become infected with a laboratory 

 strain of either Trypanosoma brucei or Trypanosoma evansi, 

 both parasites of cattle. Krempf(iO) has recently reported a 

 baomogregarine in man, while the work of Dutton and Todd, (3) 

 Fantham,(4) Fantham and Porter, (6) and others in induced 



