242 The Philippine Journal of Science wis 



fluids. 9 If Trichomonas intestinalis is identical with Trichomo- 

 nas vaginalis as some writers, notably Lynch, (27) hold, there is 

 one example of adaptation to a changed environment. Lynch, in 

 what is probably the first successful attempt to cultivate THcho- 

 monas or experimentally to transmit it to a lower animal, culti- 

 vated Trichomonas from the vagina and mouth in acidified bouil- 

 lon and injected a rabbit rectally, with the result that the fseces 

 of the rabbit became soft and contained many trichomonads. 



Ohira and Noguchi(40) on the other hand, cultivated the mouth 

 trichomonad (a tetratrichomonad in their cases) in a slightly al- 

 kaline mixture of ascitic fluid and Ringer's solution, which they 

 found much more favorable than acid media. They grew the 

 trichomonads both at room temperature and at 37° C, which was 

 7 degrees higher than that at which Lynch was able to cultivate 

 the organisms in his medium. Lynch observed no develop- 

 mental phenomena in his cultures, but Ohira and Noguchi de- 

 scribe multiple fission and the budding off of the daughter cells 

 one by one, as has been described by Kofoid and Swezy(26) in 

 the case of Trichomonas augusta. Neither Lynch nor Ohira and 

 Noguchi saw cysts. In speaking of Trichomonas intestinalis, 

 Rhamy and Metts (44) say that the organism lives best in a 

 neutral or slightly alkaline medium "and for this reason any 

 tissue of low vitality will harbor them." 



Disregarding for the moment the question as to whether the 

 composition of the intestinal contents at any time influences the 

 division rate of the organism, let us consider the possible fac- 

 tors bearing on the actual entrance of the flagellated organism 

 into the epithelium itself. Several conditions may govern this: 

 1, the organism may mechanically bore its way in; 2, it may 

 gain entrance through a break in the epithelium brought about 

 mechanically by physicochemical changes or through the action 

 of some other microoganism ; or 3, it may secrete some cytolytic 

 agent that attacks the epithelium. The fundamental question is, 

 What stimulus is there that causes the organism to behave in this 

 manner? That is the problem that presented itself to Hadley 

 in his study and that he frankly states cannot be answered with 

 any finality at the present time. In the case of the coccidia 

 and other obligatory cytozoic parasites, it would seem that the or- 

 ganism characteristically and necessarily seeks a home within 



"Escomel (Bull. Soc. path. exot. (1917), 10, 553) states that the 

 reactions of Trichomonas vaginalis toward therapeutic agents are the 

 same as those of Trichomonas intestinalis. He found that a 1 per 1,000 

 solution of metallic iodine (freshly prepared) would kill both species 

 instantly. He bases his conclusions on studies in vitro. 



