160 
Coccidia parasitic in man 
“They vary a great deal in size,” but are “generally very much larger than 
the ova” of Ankylostoma. . .“ averaging about inch [about 170 /x] in 
diameter.” “They are by no means uniform in shape. . .differing in fact from 
ova much in the same way that potatoes do from eggs." And so forth. 
It will be sufficient for our present purpose to note that Giles’s bodies, 
whatever else they may have been, were certainly not coccidia. 
Jurgens's case. At the post mortem examination of a workman, aged 60, 
Jurgens (1895) discovered some peculiar “bodies” in growths in the dura mater 
of the brain and spinal cord. One of the rabbits which he inoculated from these 
subsequently developed numerous tumours—in the orbit, and various other 
places—which were believed to contain similar bodies. For reasons which are 
not apparent, the author regarded the bodies as a “species of coccidium”; 
but he added that “as regards size, shape, and sporulation it differs essentially 
from Coccidium oviforme, or perforans Most people, on reading his account, 
will, I think, be disposed to go further than this; and they will probably 
conclude, as I do, that his “bodies" differed materially from all known 
coccidia, and consequently that his case was not one of coccidiosis. 
Quincke s cases. Quincke (1899) has described bodies which he found in the 
faeces of two human beings, and which he regarded as coccidia. His first case 
(Case I), a man of 40, suffering from diarrhoea, was passing numerous “hyaline, 
oval structures, 12 g long, 8 p broad.” These Quincke considered to be coccidia 
similar to those described by “ Baillet" and Lucet, Grassi, and Rivolta. (What 
these authors actually described we have already noted.) From the description 
and figures, there can be very little doubt that Quincke’s “coccidia” really 
were identical with those described by Grassi; that is, they were the cysts of 
Lamblia intestinalis, and not coccidia at all. 
Quincke’s second case (Case III) passed different bodies, which it is 
suggested were possibly coccidia. They were undoubtedly in reality Blasto- 
cystis hominis. The figures unmistakably depict this common vegetable 
organism of the human bowel. 
It is thus clear that neither of the cases described by Quincke was one of 
coccidia! infection. 
Thomas's case. In the brain of a woman, aged 40, who died of pneumonia, 
Thomas (1899) found a bony tumour the size of a small pea. Microscopic 
examination of this led him to conclude that it had been caused by the presence 
of coccidia—which he identified as “ Coccidia oviformia ”—in the brain. The 
occurrence of the hepatic coccidia of the rabbit in the human brain, however, 
would be so remarkable a phenomenon, that it would require much stronger 
evidence for its verification than the author appears to have been able to 
adduce 1 . It seems, indeed, more than probable that Thomas was mistaken 
in his conclusions, and that the structures which he observed were not coccidia. 
1 1 have not been able to consult the full account of this case,'which was to have been published 
—according to the abstract (by Nuttall) in the Centralbl. f. Bakt ,—in the Boston Hospital Reports. 
