Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/996

938 forms occurred, enclosed exceptionally in lencocytes. The patient suffered from irregular fever and anæmia combined with a cystic enlargement in close proximity to the inferior cervical glands. Liver and spleen were also enlarged.

Histoplasma capsulatum was found by Darling in Panama in the tissues of one Chinaman and two negroes who died of some obscure malady characterized by wasting, irregular fever, enlarged spleen, and anæmia. In smears and sections of the lung small bodies were found within the epithelioid cells which bore a great resemblance to leishmania, but differed in possessing no kinetonucleus (blepharoplast). According to Rocha-Lima the parasite is really a yeast-like organism and has nothing to do with the protozoa, but resembles the Cryptococcus farciminosus, the cause of epizootic lymphangitis of horses in Senegal.

Polymastigina possess three or more unequal flagella; a distinct mouth opening may be present or absent; in other points they resemble the foregoing. The Polymastigina are divided into two divisions or suborders—the Tetramitidæ and the Octomitidæ.

Suborder 1.—The Tetramitidæ have three or more flagella arising at the anterior end; the trailing flagellum, if present, may be united to the body by an undulating membrane.

Trichomonas intestinalis (Fig. 241), a common parasite in man, has the trailing flagellum united to the body by such an undulating membrane. It is a matter of controversy whether encystment occurs. Trichomonas, in addition to its motile powers, is capable of a certain amount of amœboid movement; it possesses a definite but small mouth cavity, and a stiff supporting rod known as the axostyle.

Tetramitus mesnili also occurs as a harmless parasite in human fæces; it resembles trichomonas in its general features,