Abstract
| - Abstract. We have found an intestinal parasite associated with chronic intermittent diarrhœa in an Egyptian woman, at present resident in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, but originally coming from the neighbourhood of Assouan, in Upper Egypt. This parasite we consider to be identical with that described by DA FONSECA in 1915, in Brazil, under the name E. hominis, and we confirm his observations in all important matters with the exception of the trailing character of the long flagellum, which is not shewn in his Fig. 14. As this flagellate has been found to be parasitic in man in such widely separate portions of the world as Brazil and Southern Egypt, it is not improbable that, in the near future, it will be discovered to be widely distributed at all events throughout tropical regions, but its small size is against its easy recognition, except when it is present in large numbers. With regard to its causal action this appears to be probable in the present case, as neither we nor Captain ARCHIBALD were able to recover any pathogenic bacterium from the fæces. Spirilla are often present in large numbers in the fæces in this country and may or may not be adjuvants in causing diarrhœa, but so far we have failed to cultivate them, at all events in a recognisable form. Whether our treatment will eventually prove successful remains to be seen, as the case is one of very chronic diarrhœa.
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