RHINOSPORIDIUM 



173 



50). Little is known of the symptoms produced by these para- 

 sites, but since they Uve inside epithelial cells of the intestine 

 or liver they must be injurious. Wenyon has recently reported 

 dysenteric symptoms in a case in which 

 no intestinal parasites except Isospora 



were present. Coccidians are un- / mmW \ oocy^ 



doubtedly spread by means of water 

 or food polluted by mud and dirt, by 

 unsanitary habits, and by flies. 



Rhinosporidium, a Parasite of the 

 Nose 



Sporocyst 

 Sporozolte 



In natives of India there is occasion- 



FiG. 50. Oocyst of Eimena 



ally observed a peculiar infection of the containing four sporocysts, each 

 nose in which a red tumor, flecked with ^"^ *^° sporozoites. 

 whitish spots, and hkened by some authors to a raspberry, grows 

 out from the partition or septum of the nose, remaining attached 

 by a narrow stalk. The tumors are not very painful, but they 

 tend to block the nasal passages. It has been suggested that 

 this disease, known as nasal polypus, may have the same in- 

 fluence on the intellect of children that other impediments of 

 the nose and throat are known to have. 



When the tumor is cut the white spots visible on the surface 

 are seen to be scattered throughout the tissue and to be of very 

 variable size. Microscopic examination shows them to be the 

 cysts of a protozoan parasite in various stages of development. 

 The parasite has been named Rhinosporidium kinealyi, and is 

 classified as a member of the group of Sporozoa known as Hap- 

 losporidia. 



The cysts in the tumor are filled with great numbers of spherical 

 or oval bodies, the pansporoblasts, each of these in turn contain- 

 ing from one to a dozen closely-packed spores (see small portion 

 of a cyst in Fig. 51). The manner of development of the cysts 

 and of the tumor can readily be discovered from the various 

 stages of development of different cysts and parts of cysts which 

 can be observed in a single tumor. The youngest cysts are small 

 granular masses of protoplasm, more or less irregular in shape. 

 As one of these minute animals grows there are developed within 

 it small bodies with definite shape which are destined to become 

 the pansporoblasts already mentioned. However, the proto- 



