The morphology of Trypanosoma simiæ , sp. nov

Abstract

This species of trypanosome, which does not seem to have been described before, is remarkable in that it attacks only such widely different animals as the monkey and the goat. Oxen, baboons, dogs, guinea-pigs, and white rats appear to be immune. The rapidity with which it kills monkeys is very striking. In a series of 19 the average duration of life after the trypanosomes were first seen in the blood was only 2·9 days. Its action on animals, its reservoir, its carrier, and cultivation, have not been fully worked out, and will form the subject of a future paper. In regard to its carrier, it may be stated that in this district it is Glossina morsitans , and that scarcely a single cage of flies is brought to Kasu Hill from the neighbouring “fly-country” but is found to be infected with this trypanosome. A. Living, Unstained . Trypanosoma simiœ shows active translatory movements when alive: some individuals pass completely across the field of the microscope. Apparently the usual mode of progression is flagellum first, but occasionally an individual can be seen to move a short distance in the opposite direction.