PEOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 619 



equally as iaiportant as the local one ; it constantly occurred in those 

 who were in poor health and varied with their .2:eneral condition. He 

 was surprised to learn cats and dogs suffered from pyorrhoea. If the 

 cause was purely traumatic, surely all such animals should suffer, ns theii- 

 food abounded in sharp particles. If the disease was essentially 

 parasitic, how did habitual smokers fare, as nicotine was regarded as 

 a germicide ? Dr. Leeson inquired if the authors had any practical 

 suggestions likely to be of value to sufferers from this disease. 



Dr. A. H. Drew, who for the past two years had been studying the 

 subject at the Dental Hospital in conjunction with Dr. W. J. Penfold, 

 had found the EntanrnM ginnivalis in every case of pyorrhoea examined, 

 some SOU in all. In fifty normal " controls," i.e. mouths in which no 

 microscopic or macroscopic pus existed, they failed to find any amoebae. 

 They, also, found in the pockets another amoeba, al)out s-10 // in 

 diameter, which was obviously a free-living form. On staining by the 

 iron-ha3matoxylin method of Heidenhain, the nucleus was seen to be 

 different from that of the parasitic form, yet it showed no contractile 

 vacuole, and therefore they were considera1)]y surprised at being able 

 to grow it (at a temperature of 37' C). In culture it developed a con- 

 ti-actile vacuole, but it was found that when the amoeba was transferred 

 in culture to strictly anaerol)ic conditions, the contractile vacuole dis- 

 appeared, and the amoeba reverted to the type originally found in the 

 mouth. His co-worker and himself were in agreement with Mrs. Goodrich 

 in disregarding amoebje as the cause of pyorrhoea. In none of six cases 

 at the Dental Hospital treated with emetine was there any resultant 

 improvement, nor did the amoebae disappear. The most noticeable 

 feature in cases of pyorrhoea was the immense number of spirochgetes. 

 Whether Xogouchi was right in stating they were the cause of the 

 disease he was not in a position to state, but they certainly merited 

 investigation. Mr. Sheppard bad said that the cause of pyorrhoea must 

 not be looked for among Imcteria, but rather in a systemic condition. 

 That being so, he (the speaker) was at a loss to understand why 

 Mr. Sheppard advocated vaccine treatment for the disease. 



Dr. Pixell Goodrich, in reply, said that cultures of the Bacillus 

 fusiforniis were apparently only obtained with great difiiculty ; she and 

 her collaborator had not started to grow it, but had seen it stated that 

 it produced short filaments. Its identity with the spirochete of Vincent's 

 Angina had been put forward chiefly by Tunnicliff ; Captain Bowman, 

 >it the Canadian Military Hospital, was also trying to make out that the 

 spirochsete evolved into the bacillus, or vice versa. There was no 

 evidence of pyorrhcea being caused by spirochetes ; Xogouclji had grown 

 Treponema mucosum which gave off the foetid odour that some m'edical 

 men insist is characteristic of pyorrhoea. But Bacillus fusiforniis had 

 been said to have the same smell, as also had the Bacillus necrosus. 



With regard to a systemic or constitutional cause for the disease, of 

 course if the system had run down, there was then a predisposition to 

 the growth of organisms ; but that did not negative the suggestions 

 put forward by her colleague and herself. They had encountered one 

 or two cases in which arthritis was present also. But pyorrhoea is so 

 widespread a disease that it must be easy to find people in whom both 



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