Medi cal Offi cers of t he Army of Indi a. 6 5
distinct tendency of the bacterium towards a certain development, and not so of the
hæmatozoon. I might add that it is only when the spirochæta Obermeieri in its most
active state is, as it were, uncurled and variously twisting that it could be mistaken for the
monad; since when more tranquil it appears as a much slenderer, shorter, and quite uni
-form spiral thread, darting indifferently backwards or forwards and showing no flagellum
at either of its equally obtuse ends. I also note that though morphologically apart, there
sometimes obtains ( e.g, as regards the "surra" organism) a biological resemblance—that,
namely, of reproduction through inoculation; but such faculty manifestly pertains to both
protophyta and protozoa.
As anthrax in horses is said to be frequent in India and sometimes liable to be con-
founded with the "surra" disease, it may be worth pointing out that the bacillus anthracis
has in fresh blood the aspect of delicate homogeneous rods, either straight or slightly
curved, with parallel sides and flattened ends; and often joining, as regards mere length
as well as breadth they might compare with the "surra" organism, whilst on the other
hand their perfect quiescence alone would be distinctive. Inside the body after death,
and outside at ordinary temperatures, the rods readily grow and produce their spores.
There now remains a possible identification of the blood-parasite under review with
organisms of the sub-kingdom protozoa, forms of which are known to flourish in fluid
media of animals with hardly more access of oxygen than obtains in the blood; and it
would be with such directly nourished parasitic species, since a differentiation of integu
-ment and contents, nucleus or vacuole, mouth or anus, cannot here be made with certainty.
Following Leuckart ("The Parasites of Man," translated by Mr. Hoyle, 1886), the identifica-
tion then might be in advance of the Rhizopods and Sporozoa (Coccidial forms of which
may be seen in the rat's liver), and rather with the class of Infusoria, its order Flagellata
— t h e f l a g e l l u m b e i n g a l w a y s c o n f i n e d t o t h e a n t e r i o r o r o r a l e x t r e m i t y ; n e x t , p a r t i c u l a r l y
with the simpler Monad family, including the Genera Ceromonas (with numerous free-
living species), and Trichomonas which is wholly parasitic in the higher and lower ani
-mals and is characterised by an oval body provided not only with a flagellum, but also with
a longitudinal fringe. Thus, without my being in a position to criticise further, the view
of Dr. E. M. Crookshank seems reasonable (l.c.), namely, that the organism in question
may be relegated to this already-recognised genus—its sub-genus Trichomonas sanguinis,
without resorting to the new terms Herpeto-monas (Kent) or Hæmato-monas (Mitro
-phanow).
I am aware of certain objections to the view above proposed, and doubtless
a decision of this sort is always open to revision; yet in connection therewith as
bearing on assigned or possible sources of the parasite-contamination, it seems
worth adding (from Leuckart) that these monads commonly live on putrefying
substances, and are often found in countless numbers in water, or in living animals,
e.g. , the large intestine of frogs and toads the paunch of ruminants and
cœcum of pig; also in the genital canals of the snail, the body-cavity of roti-
fers, the alimentary canal of millepedes and insects, being occasionally so fre
-quent (especially in moths and flies) that whole tracts of the intestine are filled
with them.
In the same connection I would here allude to the evident narrow place,
limitation, or "endemicity," of both rat-infection and the "surra" disease, with