PROTOZOA 



507 



of more or less constant form, and covered with cilia in varying number and 

 arrangement. The infusoria include the flagellates and the ciliated parasites. 

 Of the flagellates, trichomonas vaginalis, Donne, 1837, is frequently found 

 m yellowish, markedly acid vaginal mucus, whereas the parasite is not pres- 

 ent in the normal secretion of the vagina. The 

 parasite, which is elliptical in shape, and 0.01 

 mm. in length, is elongated into a delicate process 

 at the anterior border of which there are usually 

 four long, slender, whip-like flagella. An undu- 

 lating membrane, the contracting wave of which 

 is continually directed anteroposteriorly, extends 

 spirally from the point of origin of the flagella. 

 The parasite was foimd in purulent urine by 

 Marchand, Miura and Dock; in human feces by 

 Janowski and Skaller; in the contents of the 

 stomach in carcinomse cardiee by Strube.- It also 

 appears that the flagella found by Davaine, Grassi, 

 Eckekrantz, Cunningham, Tham, Marchand, Zun- 

 ker, Epstein, May, Eoos, Schuberg, Schiirmayer, 

 and others, which, following Davaine (1854), are 

 designated as trichomonas hominis, are not essen- 

 tially different from trichomonas vaginalis. Simi- 

 lar structures were also found in the sputum in 

 gangrene of the lungs by Kannenberg, Streng and 

 Schmidt, in serous pleural exudate by Litten, in 

 putrid pleurisy by Eoos. It appears that the para- 

 site designated plagiomonas urinaria by Iviinstler, 

 in 1883, also belongs in this class. The cilia 

 observed by earlier authors were probably only 

 simulated by the continuous motion of the undulating membrane. The num- 

 ber of the flagella is by no means characteristic. 



ISTo positive statements can be made regarding the significance of the tricho- 

 monades as generators of disease. Yet it is quite conceivable that, if present 

 in enormous quantities, they might lead to long-continued suppuration and 

 catarrh of the intestine. As a rule, they are easily exterminated by repeated 

 doses of 0.1-0.2 of calomel. 



Megastoma entericum Grassi, 1881, and s. Lamblia intestinalis Lambl, 

 1859, are of the same significance. The exact description of this parasite 

 will be found in the chapter on Dysentery,^ where it is also stated that the 

 parasite, if occurring in large numbers, may cause an intestinal catarrh which 

 is usually cured without difficulty unless complicated by carcinoma or tuber- 

 culosis. 



Of other flagella, monas globulus, Dujardin ; monas lens, Dujardin ; monas 

 elongata, Dujardin; bodo intestinalis, Ehrenberg; cercomonas acuminata, 

 Dujardin; cercomonas globulus, Dujardin; cercomonas biflagellata, Stein- 



FiG. 29. — Trichomonas Vagi- 

 nalis, Donne; Consideh- 

 ABLY Enlarged. (After 

 Kiinstler.) 



1 Volume, " Infectious Diseases." 



