APPENDIX D. 

 AMCEBIC DYSENTERY. 



IN a previous chapter it has been pointed out that the term 

 "dysentery" has been applied to a number of conditions of 

 different etiology, and the relations of bacteria as causal agents 

 have been there discussed (vide p. 346). We shall here consider 

 that variety of tropical dysentery which is believed to be due to 

 an amoeba, and hence often known as amoebic dysentery. 



Amongst the early researches on the relation of organisms to 

 dysentery probably the most important are those of Losch, who 

 noted the presence and described the characters of amoebae in 

 the stools of a person suffering from the disease, and considered 

 that they were probably the causal agents. Further observations 

 on a more extended scale were made by Kartulis with confirma- 

 tory results, this observer finding the same organisms also in 

 liver abscesses associated with dysentery. Councilman and 

 Lafleur, working in Baltimore, showed that this variety of 

 dysentery can be distinguished from other forms, not only by 

 the presence of amoebae but also by its pathological anatomy. 

 The intestinal lesions, to which reference is made below, are of a 

 grave character, mortality is relatively high, and recovery, when 

 it occurs, is protracted on account of the extensive tissue 

 changes. The subject was, however, complicated by the fact 

 that a similar organism the amoeba coli had been previously 

 found in the intestine in normal conditions and in other 

 diseases than dysentery (by Cunningham and Lewis and others), 

 and additional research confirmed these results. It may now be 

 regarded as established that the amoeba of dysentery and the 

 common amoeba of the colon are two distinct species. This has 

 especially been shown by the researches of Schaudinn, who has 

 given the terms entamoeba histolytica and entamoeba coli to the 

 two organisms. 



Entamoeba histolytica as seen in the dysenteric stools occurs 



537 



