INTRODUCTION. 



THE work carried out in Egypt, of which this paper forms 

 the report, was undertaken at the request of Surgeon-General 

 Sir William Babtie, V.C., K.C.M.G., at that time P.D.M.S., M.E.F., 

 in consultation with the Medical Advisory Committee. Its object 

 was threefold, namely, an investigation into the carrier problem 

 of amoebic dysentery amongst the troops with a view to the possible 

 elimination of the carriers ; secondly, an inquiry into the best 

 method of administering emetin to carriers and actual dysenteries 

 with the object of establishing some uniform line of treatment 

 which would give the maximum of good result ; and, thirdly, an 

 examination of the fly transmission of amoebic dysentery by means 

 of cyst carriage, and a determination of the best means of destroying 

 the resistant amoebic cysts after their escape from the body. 



During the inquiry into the three problems named above, 

 although our attention was chiefly directed towards the pathogenic 

 Entamceba histolytica, all the various intestinal protozoa of man in 

 Egypt came under observation, and we have been able to gather 

 a large amount of information regarding them. Much of this is 

 quite new, and it will be set forth in the following pages under 

 different headings. 



The work was carried out at Alexandria, as Surgeon-General 

 Babtie rightly considered this to be the most suitable locality for 

 an investigation of this kind amongst troops in camp. We were 

 fortunate at the outset in obtaining a very excellent laboratory at 

 the Orwa-el-Waska Section of the 19th General Hospital, where 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, R.A.M.C., officer commanding in charge, 

 and Captain Lambkin, R.A.M.C., Registrar of 19th General Hospital 

 and officer commanding at Orwa-el-Waska, gave us every assist- 

 ance. It is not too much to say that without the help of these 

 officers and their readiness on every occasion to carry out our 

 wishes, the work we had in hand could not have been so success- 

 fully conducted. For the treatment of the cases we had two 



