Fig. 422.—Trichomonas from cæcum and gut of rat: n, nucleus; bl, blepharoplast; fl, flagella; ax, axostyle; m, undulating membrane; b, line of attachment of undulating membrane to the body. × 2,000 approx. (Original.)
Human Trichomoniasis (see pp. [52]–56).—Lynch[1250] (April and May, 1915), working in Charleston, seems to favour the view that the trichomonads found in the vagina, urethra, mouth, lungs and alimentary tract are one and the same organism, and that these flagellates may further excite already existing inflammatory conditions. He gives detailed histories of cases of (a) infection of the vagina and gums, and (b) intestinal infection manifested as intermittent attacks of diarrhœa. The flagellates were found in catarrhal vaginal discharge, in blood-stained scrapings from the gums (together with Endamœba buccalis), and in stools after a purge of magnesium sulphate. The parasites were tetratrichomonads (see footnote, p. [53]), that is, each possessed four flagella anteriorly as well as an undulating membrane. Lynch successfully infected rabbits from the cases and from cultures of the parasite. Encysted trichomonads were seen in a patient’s stools, in rabbits infected therefrom and in cultures. The culture medium used was bouillon acidified with about 0·05 per cent. acetic acid and the cultures were maintained at 30° C.
Trichomonads occur in the digestive tracts, for example, the cæca of rats and mice (fig. 422). In man allied flagellates can occur in similar situations, as well as in other parts of the intestine.
Other trichomonad-like organisms have been recently described from the fæces of man, more particularly from cases of chronic dysentery in the tropics. Derrieu and Raynaud[1251] (July, 1914), working in Algeria, found a flagellate possessing five free flagella anteriorly and an undulating membrane apparently lateral. They named the parasite Hexamastix ardin-delteili, but the generic name Hexamastix is pre-occupied. Chatterjee[1252] (January, 1915), working in India, found probably the same flagellate and called it Pentatrichomonas bengalensis.
Fig. 423.—Chilomastix (Tetramitus) mesnili. a, b, c, flagellate forms; d, rounded or encysted form. × 2,500. (Original.)
Chilomastix (Tetramitus) mesnili (see p. [57]).—Alexeieff[1253] (1914) now places the parasite originally called Macrostoma mesnili, by Wenyon (1910), in the genus Chilomastix, Alexeieff. The differential characters of the genera Tetramitus and Chilomastix are not especially well marked. According to Alexeieff, Tetramitus is characterized by four unequal flagella (which he figures anteriorly), a ventral cytostome in the form of a linear cleft and a pulsatile vacuole in front of the anterior nucleus. Chilomastix, according to the same author, has three forwardly directed flagella and a fourth backwardly directed one in the cytostome, which is well developed (fig. 423). Some authors consider that the fourth flagellum forms the edge of an undulating membrane in the cytostome.