688 Dysentery 



Maggiora, Arnaud, Celli and Fiocca, Galli-Valerio, Vala- 

 gussa, Deycke, and others published descriptions of various 

 micro-organisms isolated from dysenteric stools, and looked 

 upon by their discoverers as the cause of the disease. The 

 results were, however, so discordant that none of the described 

 micro-organisms could be agreed upon as the excitant of the 

 disease. 



In 1 860 Lambl* published a description of an ameba found 

 in the human intestine. No one seemed inclined to believe 

 that it might have any significance until much later. 



In 1875 Loschf described an ameba which he found in 

 great numbers in the colon of a case of dysentery occurring 

 in St. Petersburg. Not much notice was taken of his paper 

 or much made of his observation until eight years later, when 

 Koch and Gaffky, { in studying the cholera in Egypt, also 

 observed amebas in the intestinal discharges in certain cases, 

 and Kartulis wrote upon the "Etiology of the Dysentery in 

 Egypt," which he referred to these amebas. In America the 

 study of these amebas was quickly taken up. Osier || discov- 

 ered the organisms in the evacuations of a case of dysentery 

 contracted by a patient during a visit to Panama. Council- 

 man and Lafleur** wrote a fine monograph upon "Amebic 

 Dysentery," while Quincke and Roosff and Kruse and Pas- 

 qualeJt confirmed the observations and results in Europe. 



Thus it came to be recognized that an ameba was the 

 cause of dysentery. It was soon pointed out, however, that 

 there were cases of dysentery in which no ameba could be 

 found in the intestinal discharges, or in which they were so 

 few that it seemed impossible that they could be the cause of 

 the disease. This was particularly impressive throughout 

 the years of the endemic dysentery in Japan, already referred 

 to. Great numbers of cases occurred, great numbers of 

 people died, no amebas were found to account for the disease. 

 It therefore occurred to Kitasato that some other causal agent 

 must be looked for, and Shiga took up the problem, which was 

 * "Aus. d. Franz Joseph Kinderspital zur Prague," 1860, I, 326. 

 f'Virchow's Archives," 1875, Bd. LXV. 



t "Behricht iiber die Erforschung du Cholera," 1883; "Arbeiten aus 

 d. Kaiserl. Gesundheitsamt.," in, 65. 

 "Virchow's Archives," 1886, cv. 

 || "Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," 1890, vu, 736. 



** "Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports," 1891, n. 



ft "Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1893, 



it " Zeitschrift f. Hygiene," etc., 1894, xvi. 



