R. Blanchard thus designates a Flagellate that Grimm found in the sputum, as well as in the pus of a pulmonary and hepatic abscess, in the case of a Japanese woman living in Sapporo. The parasites resemble large spermatozoa (fig. 23). The body, 30 µ to 60 µ, has the shape of a heart or a myrtle leaf, and is surrounded by a thick cuticle which is supposed to extend into the interior of the body, dividing it into three parts. A long appendix at the rounded pole is covered for the greater part of its length by the cuticle; the extremity, however, is free and resembles a flagellum. The parasites were very active, frequently changed their shape, and were able to retract the long appendix within the body, which then assumed a round form.
[This organism requires further investigation.]
_Protomonadina_ which are either free-living or parasitic, with two dissimilar flagella, while the possession of an undulating membrane and of a kinetic nucleus or blepharoplast is variable.
1. _Bodo_, Stein, 1878, without a kinetic nucleus and undulating membrane.
2. _Prowazekia_, Hartmann and Chagas, 1910, with a kinetic nucleus and without an undulating membrane.
3. _Trypanoplasma_, Laveran and Mesnil, 1901, with a kinetic nucleus and undulating membrane.
Of these genera _Prowazekia_ must be discussed. _Bodo_ does not occur in man. Species of _Trypanoplasma_ occur in the blood and in the gut of various fishes, in the seminal receptacle of certain snails, in the gut and genitalia of a flatworm (_Dendrocœlum lacteum_) and in the vagina of a leech. Closely allied to _Trypanoplasma_ is the genus _Trypanophis_, parasitic in the cœlenteric cavity of Siphonophores.
Genus. *Prowazekia*, Hartmann and Chagas, 1910.
The genus was founded for a flagellate parasite, _Prowazekia cruzi_, discovered in a culture of human fæces in Brazil. Various other species have been referred thereto. The genus is separated from _Bodo_ by the possession of a second nucleus, the so-called kinetonucleus or blepharoplast. It differs from _Trypanoplasma_ in the absence of an undulating membrane. It is heteromastigote, that is, it possesses two dissimilar flagella, one anteriorly directed and the other lateral and trailing.
Syn.: _Bodo urinarius_, Hassall, 1859; _Trichomonas irregularis_, Salisbury, 1868; _Cystomonas urinaria_, Blanchard, 1885; _Plagiomonas urinaria_, Braun, 1895.