Amoeba

(am -e’- bah) [a/iotpi?, a change]. A colorle , single-celled, jellylike, protoplasmic organism found in sea and fresh waters, constantly undergoing changes of form and nourishing itself by englobing surrounding objects. A. col i, the ameba of dysentery. This is a protoplasmic ma , resembling the water ameba, 20 to 30 ft in diameter, and composed of a nucleus and a highly granular protoplasm containing vacuoles. It is found in large numbers in the stools of certain forms of dysentery, in the intestinal mucous membrane, and at times in the so-called dysenteric absce of the liver. Whether it is the real cause of the disease is not definitely established. 48