E. histolytica: carriers 



that they therefore always injure the body of the host. 

 These injuries, however, because of host resistance, are 

 so sHght that they are repaired by the regeneration of 

 tissue as rapidly as they are incurred, the result being 

 a sort of equilibrium between host and parasite. 



The third view is that a large proportion of carriers 

 suffer from ''chronic" amoebiasis. Kofoid and his col- 

 leagues have been studying this phase of the subject for 

 several years. They state that 'Tt has been possible for 

 the last two years to say that there is a definite disease 

 entity that can be recognized by clinical means as 

 chronic amoebiasis. According to our own records, this 

 is so definite that fully 95 per cent of cases can be diag- 

 nosed clinically, before laboratory confirmation is ob- 

 tained." ''Over a period of years, constant search has 

 been made for a true carrier, but as yet only one individ- 

 ual has been found by the medical author in more than 

 500 cases who showed no visible tissue damage attribu- 

 table to E. dysentericE. ... In symptomatology, one of 

 the salient facts is that persons with amebiasis commonly 

 complain of fatigability. They go to bed tired, and arise 

 in the morning tired; they are tired whether they work 

 or rest ; many of them are so tired that they are in actual 

 anguish; others merely say they have lost their 'pep.' 

 Very commonly associated with fatigability is constipa- 

 tion, or constipation interspersed with evanescent diar- 

 rheas. Occasionally one will elicit the passing of con- 

 siderable quantities of mucus or blood. A normal man 

 knows hunger and the desire for evacuation; otherwise 

 his bowel does not obtrude on his consciousness. In 

 amebiasis the patient often has no actual pain. On the 



109 



