The Animal Parasites of ManFantham, Harold Benjamin
Science
The Animal Parasites of Man
Fantham, Harold Benjamin
Medical parasitology
According to Chatton and Lalung-Bonnaire[14] (1912) the entamœbæ of
vertebrates should be placed in a separate genus _Löschia_, as they
differ in their life-history from _E. blattæ_, the type species of
_Entamœba_. Leidy (1879), however, named the genus _Endamœba_, but
further researches are necessary on biological variation among these
organisms.
[14] _Bull. Soc. Path. Exotique_, v, p. 135.
*Entamœba histolytica*, Schaudinn, 1903.
Syn.: _Amœba coli_, autt. p. p. _Amœba dysenteriæ_, autt. p. p.
The average size of the amœboid trophozoite is 25 µ to 30 µ. In fæces
diluted with salt solution the amœbæ swell to 40 µ and more. There is
sometimes separation of the body substance into a strongly refractile
vitreous ectoplasm and a corneous endoplasm, pronounced even in
repose, although the former is not equally thick at all parts of the
periphery. In the endoplasm generally there are numerous foreign bodies
(bacteria, epithelial cells, colourless and red blood corpuscles
(fig. 6), and occasionally living flagellates of the intestine). The
nucleus is 4 µ to 6 µ in diameter, and may be difficult to recognize
because it is sometimes weakly refractile and poor in chromatin. Its
shape is slightly variable; it is usually excentric, sometimes wholly
peripheral at the limit of the two parts of the body. Vacuoles are not
present in quite fresh specimens, but appear later. In the study of
_E. histolytica_, the morphological characters of the trophozoite or
vegetative stage of the organism formerly separated as _E. tetragena_
(figs. 5, 6, 8_a_) must be considered (see p. 38).
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--_Entamœba histolytica_ (_tetragena_ form),
showing three successive changes of form due to movement. × 1100.
(After Hartmann.)]
The history of the development of these species, which give rise
to amœbic enteritis as distinguished from bacillary dysentery,
was formerly not so well known as that of _E. coli_. Upon being
introduced into cats (_per anum_) dysenteric amœbæ provoke symptoms
similar to those in man. In the latter, besides metastatic liver
abscesses, abscesses of the lungs, and, according to Kartulis,
cerebral abscesses are occasionally produced. Marchoux (1899) states
that when the disease has lasted for some time liver abscesses are
produced in cats also.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--_Entamœba histolytica_ which has ingested
many red blood corpuscles. × 1100. (After Hartmann.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Section through wall of large intestine (of a
man) close under an ulcer caused by _Entamœba histolytica_. A, amœbæ
that have penetrated partly in blood-vessels (Bv), partly in tissue
of submucosa to the muscularis. Magnified. (After Harris.)]
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