244 The Philippine Journal of Science ms 



monads in some cutaneous ulcers, we have considerable evidence 

 that it may occur under certain conditions in the lower animals. 



Intestinal parasites representing genera frequently seen in 

 man do, in the lower animals, pass from the lumen of the intes- 

 tine into the blood and lymph on the development of certain 

 pathological conditions in the host. This fact was early noted 

 by Danilewski in the case of Hexamitus, a flagellated parasite 

 in the intestinal tracts of tortoises and frogs. The animals in 

 question had long been in captivity. They showed signs of dis- 

 tress and exhibited oedematous swellings in the muscles and 

 transudation of lymph into the peritoneal cavity. Microscopic 

 examination showed the presence of the protozoa in the blood, 

 lymph, oedemata, and transudations. Plimmer(4i) has reported 

 a number of similar cases occurring in reptiles and batrachians 

 in the London Zoological Gardens. He found both Hexamitus 

 and Trichomonas in the blood. Plimmer holds that the presence 

 of intestinal parasites in the blood stream is to be associated with 

 definite and recognizable lesions of the intestinal wall. It is 

 fairly well established in connection with the parasitic protozoa 

 that in some cases a parasite, which may be perfectly or rela- 

 tively harmless when the host is free, may become pathogenic 

 or even lethal when the host is in captivity. 



Wenyon(50) points out that intestinal flagellates, like the in- 

 testinal bacteria, occasionally invade the tissues shortly before 

 or after death. He attributes this to diminished resistance on 

 the part of the intestine, which permits the passage of organisms 

 that normally live in the lumen of the gut. Diminished resist- 

 ance is a broad term that covers up considerable uncertainty. Is 

 it wholly, in this case, a matter of lowered resistance, are essen- 

 tial chemical changes involved, or do the processes of autodiges- 

 tion of tissues of the alimentary tract, which may set in soon 

 after death, play their part? 



Wenyon quotes Basile, Gonder, and Stevenson on the matter 

 of tissue invasion by the flagellates. Gonder recovered Lamblia 

 from the blood stream of a fowl ; Basile, Lamblia from the liver 

 of a rat. The liver was dotted with white cysts containing the 

 organisms. Basile inoculated a rat peritoneally with the con- 

 tents of some of these cysts and later found Lamblia in the liver 

 and mesenteric glands. Stevenson showed Wenyon sections of 

 the caecum of a mouse having definite lesions of the mucous 

 surface that had been invaded by numerous trichomonads. Lam- 

 blia has been shown as invading the glands of the small intestine 

 of the rabbit. Wenyon says : 



These are exceptional cases, but so long as they occur there is the pos- 



