OF THE ALIMENTARY TRACT 199 



in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Louisiana, Minne- 

 sota, North Carolina, New York, and Oklahoma, and 

 that, although he has done many thousand examina- 

 tions of stools, he has encountered the organisms 

 only a half dozen times and never in any individual 

 examined in the United States. Deeks (1925) notes 

 its presence in hospital laboratory reports in central 

 America, in 13 cases in 1923, 88 cases in 1924, and 

 128 cases for 1925, while Aguilar (1925) reports that 

 during the period from August 30th to October 2nd, 

 inclusive, 40 cases of balantidic infection were ad- 

 mitted to the Quirigua Hospital, Gautemala, this 

 being 10% of the admissions. All of these patients 

 were apparently admitted on account of some other 

 ailment, all gave a questionable history of diarrhoea, 

 and fourteen of them showed pus or pus and blood 

 in the stool. He believes that balantidial infection 

 is most prevalent in this region following the rainy 

 season and that its source is the common domestic 

 pig. In the Annual Report of the United Fruit Co. 

 for 1928, J. C. McDaniel, reports finding B. coli in 

 0.41% of 5587 stool examinations. The only in- 

 stance of its occurrence in man in this country ob- 

 served by the writer w^as in an Arabian immigrant. 

 Balantidium coli is a fairly common intestinal 

 parasite of the domestic pig and it is believed by 

 many that this animal is the natural host, that man 

 is a host by accidental transmission from the pig. 

 It is highly probable that the isolated cases of infec- 

 tion of man are from this source and entirely likely 



