CHAPTER XXIII 



PROBLEMS AFFECTING THE DIFFERENTIAL 

 DIAGNOSIS OF THE DYSENTERIES 



By 



Fraxk G. Haughwout 

 Curator, the Pantological Society of ^lanila, Manila, P. I. 



IXTRODUCTIOX 



The methods of cytodiagnosis have so long been successfully 

 employed in the diagnosis of conditions that either directly or sec- 

 ondarily affect the blood-vascular and h?emapoietic systems that 

 we no longer question the broad principles upon which they rest. 

 The same may be said of the cytological and histological criteria 

 upon which rest our al:)ility to distinguish between tumors of 

 various types, and of the inferences that may be drawn from the 

 microscopic study of spinal fluid in certain morbid conditions. 

 The possibilities of these procedures are now established to the 

 point that they have become very useful, while their limitations 

 are understood to a degree that has made their application scientific. 



]\Iore recently, there has developed another field for the adapta- 

 tion of cytology to diagnosis. That field is found in the cytological 

 study of intestinal discharges, under various conditions of disease. 

 Its most successful application, so far, has lain in the differential 

 diagnosis of the dysenteries — bacterial and protozoal, but suffi- 

 cient has been learned in the past few years to show that it has 

 far broader possibilities, and its extension to a wider range of 

 pathological conditions is predestined. 



It is difficult to say just when the significance of the cytology of 

 bowel exudates was first suspected. I find abundant evidence of 

 its study in Woodward's monograph (1879). Bahr (191 2) laid 

 some stress on it in his monograph on dysentery in Fiji, and 

 allusions to it had previously been made by other authors. Rogers 



201 



