206 
Amoebae 
outside sources. They did not discover, in any of these amoebae from 
different sources, cljaracters which would serve to distinguish different 
species among them, or finally to distinguish these cultivated forms 
from those found microscopically in the infected human intestine and 
liver. They considered it probable that any free-living amoeba might, 
under certain conditions, become pathogenic. 
Lesage (1905) stated that he was able to obtain, in seven out of 
20 cases of tropical dysentery, cultures of amoebae from the stools, 
using washed gelatin as a medium. These amoebae he considered as 
identical with E. histolytica Schaudinn. Walker (1908), using Mus- 
grave’s medium, obtained from the faeces of different animals 44 
cultures of what he considered parasitic amoebae, among which he 
distinguished ten species; he did not succeed in obtaining a culture 
from human faeces. Noc (1909) by the use of a gelatin medium, 
0'5 7o alkaline in reaction, obtained cultures of amoebae from (i) liver 
abscess pus, (ii) the stools in cases of dysentery and (iii) the water 
supply of Saigon (French Indo-China): these amoebae he considered 
to belong to one single species, identical with that found microscopically 
in the faeces and in liver abscess pus and he looked upon them as the 
causal organisms of amoebic dysentery and hepatitis. 
In the medical literature on amoebae, as will be clear from the 
above short resume, opinion is sharply divided on one main issue, as 
to whether parasitic amoebae have been cultivated on artificial media 
or not; for the affirmative Musgrave and Clegg, Lesage, Walker, and 
Noc, for the negative, Jurgens, Schaudinn, Viereck, Hartmann and 
Werner are quoted above. 
The following are contributions to the question from the point of 
view of the Protozoologist; Vahlkampf (1905) made a study of Amoeba 
Umax, a free living organism recovered by him from an infusion of 
straw in tap water. Werner is inclined to identify the amoebae 
cultivated by Musgrave with this saprophyte. Vahlkampf mentions 
that Kartulis cultivated a “ Dysentery ” amoeba in diluted rabbit’s and 
pigeon’s faeces contained in open vessels, and that Kruse and Pasquale 
considered that these amoebae were not parasitic but were simply 
saprophytes which had gained access to the cultures from the air. 
Nagler (1909), in introducing observations on the life-cycles of some 
saprophytic amoebae, says “ In medicine also an exact knowledge of the 
life-cycles of amoebae is of great importance; it precludes such error 
as has arisen in the work of Musgrave and Clegg, for example; these 
authors have cultivated forms resembling Amoeba Umax and have given 
