AMGEBA COLL 643 



perature lower than 75 F. The amoeba does not 

 take the stain of various coloring solutions until the 

 movements cease, presumably on the death of the 

 organism. 



Practically nothing is known of the conditions of 

 nutrition, respiration, and reproduction of the amoeba, 

 as no observations on these points are recorded. 



Occurrence of Amoebae in Man. Amcebse were found 

 in the stools by Kruse and Pasquale in forty out of 

 fifty cases of the amoebic type of dysentery; by 

 Kartulis in every case in nearly 500 observations; and 

 by Councilman and Lafleur in thirteen out of fifteen 

 cases; while in their remaining two cases the amoeba 

 was found post-mortem, either in the material scraped 

 from the base of the intestinal ulcers or in sections of 

 the latter. The number found is very variable. In 

 some cases actively moving amoebae are found in great 

 numbers in every stool examined throughout the course 

 of the illness, while in other cases they can be detected 

 only in a long and careful search. As a general rule 

 they are more numerous and more frequently present 

 in the acute cases or in the earlier stages of the disease, 

 or in the periods of exacerbations of chronic dysentery ; 

 and they disappear more or less gradually from the 

 stools during convalescence. Occasionally the intestinal 

 ulceration is latent, the motions being quite formed, 

 with but small flakes of mucus adherent to them, in 

 which no amoebae may be found. In these cases the 

 existence of dysentery is not suspected until an abscess 

 of the liver occurs in which actively motile amoebae are 

 found, either by exploratory puncture or in the sputa 

 if the abscess evacuates itself spontaneously through 

 the bronchi. 



