Artault[33] discovered a few amœboid forms with nucleus and vacuole in the contents of a lung cavity. In the fresh condition they were distinguishable from leucocytes by their remarkable capacity of light refraction. They were also much slower than the latter in staining with methylene blue or fuchsine. Their movements became more lively in a strong light. Water and other reagents killed them, and then, even when stained, they could not be distinguished from leucocytes. They have also been seen by Brumpt. R. Blanchard found amœbæ which may belong here in the lungs of sheep. A. pulmonalis is perhaps the same as Entamœba buccalis. Smith and Weidman[34] (1910, 1914) described an entamœba, E. mortinatalium, from the lungs and other organs of infants in America.
Amœba urogenitalis, Baelz, 1883.
This species was found in masses in the sanguineous urine as well as in the vagina of a patient in Japan, aged 23. Shortly before the death of the patient, which was caused by pulmonary tuberculosis, hæmaturia with severe tenesmus of the bladder had set in. The amœba, which showed great motility, and had a diameter of about 50 µ when quiescent, exhibited a granular cytoplasm and a vesicular nucleus. Baelz is of opinion that these parasites were introduced into the vulva with the water used for washing the parts, and thence had penetrated into the bladder and vagina. Doflein places the organism in the genus Entamœba, and it is perhaps identical with E. histolytica.
Similar cases are also reported (1892–3) by other authors: Jürgens, Kartulis, Posner, and Wijnhoff. Jürgens found small mucous cysts, filled with amœboid bodies, in the bladder of an old woman suffering from chronic cystitis; they were also found in the vagina. The amœba observed by Kartulis in the sanguineous urine of a woman, aged 58, suffering from a tumour of the bladder, measured 12 µ to 20 µ, and exhibited slow movements by protruding short pseudopodia. The vacuoles and nucleus became visible only after staining with methylene blue.
Posner’s case related to a man, aged 37, who had hitherto been quite healthy and had never been out of Berlin. Suddenly, after a rigor, he passed urine tinged with blood. This contained, besides red and white blood corpuscles and hyaline and granular casts, large granular bodies (about 50 µ in length and 28 µ in breadth), which slowly altered their shape, and contained red blood corpuscles in addition to other foreign matter. These bodies exhibited one or several nuclei and some vacuoles. From the course of the disease, which extended over a year, and during which similar attacks recurred, Posner came to the conclusion that the amœbæ which had originally invaded the bladder had penetrated into the pelvis of the kidney, where they probably had settled in a cyst, and thence induced the repeated attacks.
Wijnhoff observed four cases of amœburia in Utrecht.
Amœba miurai, Ijima, 1898.
Fig. 12.—Amœba miurai, Ij. × 500. a, fresh; b, after treatment with dilute acetic acid. (After Ijima.)