238 The Philippine Journal of Science ms 



Gauducheau, (16) in 1912, announced his belief in the identity 

 of Entamoeba and Trichomonas. His observations apparently 

 were made on an organism similar to that described in 1907 by 

 Billet under the name Trichomonas dijsenterise. Gauducheau 

 claims to have isolated and cultivated Entamoeba? from a case 

 of dysentery in man. He describes the organism as reproducing 

 by multiple budding and giving rise to large, branched plasmodia. 

 Cultivation he found difficult on nutritive agar sown with cultures 

 of the Bacillus coli group. The organisms gave rise to spirochate- 

 like bodies in the culture. The ectoplasm was clear and formed 

 pseudopodia resembling an undulating membrane, and endogen- 

 ous buds were formed within the amoeba. In the intestines of 

 man and dogs, which had been injected with cultures of these 

 amoebae, Gauducheau reported finding all the intermediate stages 

 between Entamoeba and the flagellate. In the human bowel he 

 found branched -plasmodia from which flagella protruded in a 

 manner similar to the appearance in his cultures. The flagellate, 

 he states, develops to an amoeba, and therefore he concludes the 

 identity of Entamoeba and Trichomonas. This caused him to 

 fix three stages in the cycle of the parasite: 1, a cycle in the 

 tissues of the host, the pathogenic phase ; 2, a stage of saprophy- 

 tism in the lumen of the bowel or in cultures during which time 

 it lives on bacteria; 3, a stage when the completely developed 

 organism lives free. He links Castellani's Entamoeba undulans 

 to this organism. 



Mention has been made of the significance of diarrhoea in 

 flagellate infection. Hadley and many others have noted the 

 increase in numbers of the parasites under diarrhoeal conditions. 

 The doubt has lain as to whether the flagellates are the cause 

 of the diarrhoea or whether the diarrhoea brings about an increase 

 in their numbers. If the latter supposition is true, we have 

 two possibilities : namely, either the change in composition of 

 the fasces, through affording a more favorable environment in 

 general, or through providing an increased food supply, accele- 

 rates division; or else the action of the diarrhoea is merely 

 mechanical, tending to flush the flagellates out of the folds of 

 the intestine. Barlow (2) found that twenty-five of his one hun- 

 dred cases showed the presence of trichomonads in the stools 

 after the administration of a purge. Of these cases, twenty-two 

 had been reported negative on the routine examination of their 

 stools. Alternate diarrhoea and constipation were present in 

 fourteen cases, and in six of the latter there were other condi- 

 tions adequate to explain their symptoms. Five cases showed 



