82 PROTOZOAN PARASITISIM 



convalescence, with decreasing symptoms, to the 

 point of a few mucous stools a day, with tenesmus, 

 disturbed digestion, anemia and emaciation, or merely 

 the state of ''neurasthenia" with indigestion, previ- 

 ously recited, in which constipation is prominent, or 

 to a state of symptomless and seeming good health. 



A concise conception of the pathology of the dis- 

 ease suffices to explain the clinical state fairly com- 

 pletely. It also is of great importance to a clear 

 understanding of the reasonable expectations in the 

 practical treatment of the phases of intestinal amoe- 

 biasis. 



THE STOOLS OF DYSENTERY 



While the stool of amoebic dysentery is character- 

 istically of blood stained mucus there is a certain 

 amount of possible error in depending on this gross 

 appearance as a diagnostic feature. This has been 

 emphasized by Haughwout (1924), by Haughwout 

 and Callender (1925), and by Callender (1927), who 

 have called attention to the practical value in diag- 

 nostic procedure of a microscopic study of the stool 

 for other cells as well as for the organisms. 



The writer (1917) called attention to the confusion 

 which might occur between large phagocytic cells 

 in acute non-amoebic dysentery (probably bacillary 

 dysentery) and amoebae. 



In bacillary dysentery there will be in the stool, 

 which may be more or less blood stained and mucin- 



