.')46 Entamoeba gingival is 
there were here and there small bodies having exactly the same shape, 
size, and general appearance as the ingesta of the amoebae. It was 
clear that if we could satisfactorily explain the nature and origin of 
these bodies we should be in a position to clear up the question of the 
ingesta of the amoeba. 
The clue to the solution of this problem was obtained when it was 
observed that on one of our films certain of the bodies within the 
amoebae, and scattered about in the film, possessed small fragments of 
cytoplasm attached to the deeply staining nuclear substance of which 
they were composed (PI. XXI, fig. 13). It was further noticed that 
occasionally the bodies occurred in groups of two or three (figs. 13 a, 
h and c and 14 a-m), and this, together with the occurrence of the cyto¬ 
plasmic remains attached to the bodies suggested that they were produced 
by the disintegration of some form of polymorphonuclear leucocyte. 
It was known that in the saliva there occurred the salivary cor¬ 
puscles, which could be observed undergoing disintegration and dis¬ 
solution, when saliva was examined on the warm stage. 
Film preparations were therefore made from saliva and from the 
tonsils, from which the salivary corpuscles are poured out, and were 
fixed and stained in exactly the same way as the films for amoebae. 
Examination of these films, salivary and tonsillar, revealed salivary 
corpuscles in an almost endless variety of degeneration and disintegra¬ 
tion, and it was found that round bodies exactly similar to the ingesta 
of the amoebae and to those scattered about on the amoebae films were 
present on these films also. 
It was at once apparent that the bodies in question were produced 
from the nucleus or nuclei of degenerated and disrupted salivary cor¬ 
puscles, 
The latter were found to present a variety of nuclear appearances; 
some were mononuclear, others showed all kinds of transition stages 
between the purely mononuclear and the polymorphonuclear condition. 
The size also varied greatly. Those showing the polymorphonuclear 
condition had a very different appearance especially in the lobes of the 
nuclei from the true phagocytic polymorphonuclear leucocyte which is 
also very common in the mouth. The photomicrographs, shown in 
Figs. 9 and 9 a, illustrate the differences very welF. 
^ N.B. It is not within the province of this paper to go into the question of the 
evolution of salivary corpuscles within the body nor into their relation to the leucocytes 
of the blood. Reference should be made to the writings of Weidenreich (1908 and 1911) 
for discussion of these subjects. 
