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A NOTE ON THE NEW SPECIES OF EIMERIA 
FOUND IN MAN BY DR E. P. SNIJDERS. 
By CLIFFORD DOBELL, F.R.S. 
In the foregoing paper Dr E. P. Snijders has described the oocysts of a species 
of Eimeria which he found in the stools of a patient under his care in Medan 
(Sumatra). The manuscript of this paper, together with a preparation con¬ 
taining the cysts in question, was kindly sent to me by the author 1 with the 
request that I would “ be so kind as to add my opinion, and give to the species 
its right name.” I shall do my best to comply with both these requests in 
the present note. 
Dr Snijders has so fully described the cysts which he found, and has dis¬ 
cussed their nature so ably, that there is little for me to add to his account. 
Careful examination of the specimen which he has sent me has suggested, 
however, a few points which appear worthy of note. 
The specimen was a wet smear preparation of faeces, stained with iron 
haematoxylin and eosin and mounted in balsam. Dr Snijders describes it as 
“a bad one,” but says he “could get no better.” Nobody who has ever tried 
to make satisfactory permanent preparations of coccidial oocysts and spores 
will be disposed to find fault with him on this score. It is frequently impossible 
to cause either fixatives or stains to penetrate these very resistant structures, 
and at present they can, in many cases, be studied properly in the fresh state 
only. I have never been able to obtain satisfactory stained preparations of 
any of the other coccidia of man. 
On examining the preparation in question I was unable to recognize any 
oocysts in it with certainty. I found, here and there, a few structures which 
appeared to be degenerate sporozoites, stained pink with eosin; but I was 
unable to make out the sporocysts or oocysts enclosing them. I knew from 
experience, however, that the cysts of such organisms are often invisible 
when mounted in balsam—the cyst-walls and the balsam having approximately 
the same refractive index. I therefore removed the balsam with xylol, detached 
the cover-glass, and after passing the preparation through the various grades 
of alcohol, remounted the film in water. On re-examining it with a good lens, 
and suitably adjusted illumination, I was gratified to find a number of easily 
recognizable oocysts—many of them, unfortunately, collapsed—containing 
1 I received the communication through the Editor of Parasitology: and 1 have therefore to 
thank Professor Nuttall not only for his good offices in this connexion but also for enabling me 
to publish this note simultaneously with Dr Snijders' paper. 
