Sinton’s case is interesting. He obtained the flagellate only twice from the same patient, a Mexican then in hospital in Liverpool. The flagellate was not found in the patient’s fæces, nor was it found in the urine on later occasions when taken aseptically.
Fig. 25.—Prowazekia urinaria. Flagellate emerging from cyst. (After Sinton.)
In cultures Prowazekia urinaria was always found in association with bacteria. The cultures died at a temperature of 37° C., but grew well at 20° C. Various media were useful at the lower temperature, such as urine, salt agar, nutrient agar, serum agar, blood agar, peptone salt solution, and diluted blood serum. The flagellate was, then, considered to be an accidental contamination and not a true parasite of human urine.
Prowazekia asiatica, Castellani and Chalmers, 1910.
The flagellate was found by the discoverers in the stools of patients suffering from ankylostomiasis and diarrhœa in Ceylon. It was referred by them to the genus Bodo, but in 1911 Whitmore49 further studied it and placed it in the genus Prowazekia. In the stools the flagellate is found either as a long, slender form measuring 10 µ to 16 µ by 5 µ to 8 µ or as a rounded form 8 µ to 10 µ in diameter. Its cytoplasm is alveolar. A rhizoplast connects the basal granules to the kinetic nucleus. There is multiplication and cyst formation as before. The organism is easily cultivated, especially in the condensation water of nutrose agar and maltose agar. The pathogenicity is stated to be nil.
Prowazekia javanensis, Flu, 1912.
Found in agar cultures from the motions of patients at Weltevreden, Dutch East Indies.50 The flagellates are 12 µ long and 5 µ broad. The lateral flagellum is stated to be attached to the cell body for a short distance. Regarding the karyosome in the nucleus, the author states that the smaller the karyosome the more chromatin is deposited on the nuclear membrane. Flu mentions that the specific name javanensis is a temporary one, as in the course of time it may be shown that there is only one species of Prowazekia.
Prowazekia cruzi, Hartmann and Chagas, 1910.
Found in a culture from human fæces on an agar plate in Brazil, and considered to be a free-living form.51 The organism is oval or pear-shaped, 8 µ to 12 µ long and 5 µ to 6 µ broad. In human stools at Tsingtau, China, a Prowazekia has been found by Martini which he thinks is the same as Prowazekia cruzi. He considers it to be a cause of human diarrhœa and intestinal catarrh.
Prowazekia weinbergi, Mathis and Léger, 1910.
This species was found in the fæces of men, both healthy and diarrhœic, in Tonkin.52 It is pear-shaped, 8 µ to 15 µ long by 4 µ to 6·5 µ broad. The flagella occur at the broad end.
The discoverers think that Prowazekia weinbergi is an intestinal inhabitant, but non-pathogenic, since it was found to occur in the fæces even when obtained with aseptic precautions.
Prowazekia parva, Nägler, 1910.
A free-living form found in the slime on the stones at the biological station at Lunz. Another Prowazekia was found in 1914 in tap-water in Calcutta.
Family. Trypanosomidæ, Doflein.
The Trypanosomidæ, broadly considered, are uniflagellate organisms, the flagellum being at the anterior end. The flagellum arises near the blepharoplast (kinetic nucleus), which lies anterior, near or posterior to the nucleus.
The following genera will be considered:—
Trypanosoma—with an undulating membrane along the length of the body.
Crithidia—with a less well-developed undulating membrane anteriorly (see fig. 49).
Herpetomonas—including the so-called Leptomonas, with anterior free flagellum only, and no undulating membrane.
Leishmania—non-flagellate forms in mammalian blood, flagellate herpetomonad stages in culture, probably occurring naturally in Arthropods.
Genus. Trypanosoma, Gruby, 1843.
The members of the genus possess a single flagellum, which arises posteriorly, adjacent to a blepharoplast or kinetic nucleus. The flagellum forms a margin to an undulating membrane, and may or may not be continued beyond the body as a free flagellum. Many species are parasitic in vertebrate blood and in the digestive tracts of insects.
Historical.
The history of blood flagellates goes back to the year 1841, in which Valentin discovered in the blood of a brook-trout (Salmo fario L.) minute bodies, from 7 µ to 13 µ in length, with active movements and presenting marked changes in form. Valentin considered the parasite a new species of the old genus Proteus or Amœba, Ehrbg. This announcement led Gluge (1842) to publish a similar discovery he had made in frog’s blood. The latter forms were called by Mayer (1843) Amœba rotatoria, Paramœcium loricatum and P. costatum, while Gruby (1843) called them Trypanosoma sanguinis.53 Later it was discovered that similar organisms occurred also in the blood of birds (Wedl (1850), Danilewsky) and of mammals. Gros (1845) found them in the mouse and mole, Chaussat (1850) in the house rat, Lewis (1879) in the Indian rat, Wittich (1881) in the hamster. Danilewsky (1886–89) and Chalachnikow (1888) investigated the structure and division of trypanosomes.
In the case of all these forms, there was no discussion as to a pathogenic influence on the host. Opinion, however, as to the action of trypanosomes changed when, in 1880, Evans found flagellates in the blood of horses in India that suffered from a disease endemic there called “surra,” and associated the parasites with the disease. Steel and Evans were successful in transmitting the parasites—first known as Spirochæta evansi, Steel, then as Trichomonas evansi, Crookshank, and finally as Trypanosoma evansi—to dogs, mules and horses. They recognized that the above mentioned flagellates in the blood of the experimental animals were the causal agents of the disease.
From that time there was a considerable increase in the literature, the contents of which have been summarized by Laveran and Blanchard. In 1894 Rouget discovered trypanosomes in the blood of African horses that suffer from “stallion’s disease” (dourine). In 1894 Bruce found similar forms (T. brucei) in the blood of South African mammals suffering from “nagana,” and in consequence attention was drawn to the part which the much dreaded tsetse-fly played in the transmission of “nagana.” In 1901 Elmassian discovered trypanosomes in the blood of horses that were stricken with “mal de caderas,” which is very common in the Argentine. The disease in cattle named “galziekte” (gall-sickness), occurring in the Transvaal, was also at one time attributed to a trypanosome remarkable for its great size, and like some other species, bearing the name of its discoverer (T. theileri).
The study of the species hitherto known has been carried on partly by the above mentioned authors and in part by others, e.g., Rabinowitsch and Kempner, Laveran and Mesnil, Wasiliewski, Senn. It was greatly advanced by the method of double staining (with alkaline methylene blue and eosin) introduced by Romanowsky (1891) and elaborated by Ziemann, Leishman, Giemsa and others. By this means the presence of a terminal flagellum and of an undulating membrane at the side of the flattened and extended body was demonstrated. Laveran and Mesnil (1901) discovered allied flagellates in the blood of the fish, Scardinius erythrophthalmus. These flagellates, now placed in the genus Trypanoplasma, had a second free flagellum in addition to the one bordering the undulating membrane. Trypanoplasms have since been