Tricercomonas intestinalis and Enteromonas caviae n. sp. and Their Growth in Culture

Abstract

Enteromonas honminis is the name given by da Fonseca (1915) to a new flagellate of the intestine of man, a very small organism possessing three anterior flagella, two of which are directed forward and one, somewhat longer, directed posteriorly but not adherent to the surface of the body. Wenyon and O'Connor (1917; 1919) described a somewhat similar small flagellate; however, it has four anterior flagella, three directed forward and one recurrent, attached to the body surface for a part of its length. The cysts of Tricercomonas were also described but da Fonseca reported no cyst for his organism. Dobell (1921) considers that these two flagellates are probably the same and accepts Wenyon and O'Connor's description, their name, however, giving way to Enteromonas hominis da Fonseca. He tentatively identifies with this species also Trichomastix hominis Chatterjee (1917), Diplocercomonas soudanensis Chalmers and Pekkola (1919), and Enteromolas bengalensis Chatterjee (1919), all of which bear slight variations in their descriptions. Recently the writer has had occasion to observe a small flagellate which is apparently identical with Tricercomonas intestinalis Wenyon and O'Connor and to make some comparisons between it and a flagellate from the guinea-pig which resembles closely Enteromonas hominis. The human flagellate comes from the stools of a woman, in which it is associated with Chilomastix, the host showing no intestinal symptoms referable to the presence of the organism. The flagellate was not seen in the material from a duodenal drainage and consequently is to be considered a lower intestine inhabitant. It probably occurs in the large intestine as was the case of the flagellate from the guinea-pig. It occurred in considerable numbers in the fresh stool from which it