AMCEBA COLL 645 



amoebae, the inoculations have been made in three 

 ways: by feeding animals with material containing the 

 amoeba, by inoculation of the small intestine after a 

 preliminary laparotomy, and, finally, by rectal injec- 

 tions with or without suture of the anal orifice. The 

 first method has always proved unsuccessful except 

 when encysted forms were present. To the second 

 method the objection has been raised that the manipu- 

 lation of the intestines and the use of antiseptic solu- 

 tions during the course of the operation are in them- 

 selves a source of irritation to the bowel, and in some 

 cases have produced an enteritis. The third method 

 is the simplest, and has given positive results in the 

 hands of Losch, Kruse, Pasquale and others. 



The results of the last two observers were as fol- 

 lows : Dysenteric stools, or material from hepatic 

 abscesses containing amoebae, were injected into the 

 rectum of various animals, with or without subsequent 

 closure of the anus, for twenty-four or forty-eight 

 hours. In some cases, chiefly those in which motion- 

 less amoebae were injected, no abnormal result followed; 

 in others, blood-tinged mucus, containing actively 

 moving amoebae, appeared in the evacuations from the 

 second day or thereabouts, but the animals did not 

 appear to be ill; in a third series, with evacuations of 

 a like character, the animals wasted and died after 

 a variable number of days. In both the second and 

 third series of cases post-mortem examination showed 

 pathological changes in the large intestine, proportion- 

 ate, as a rule, to the severity of the symptoms. Of 

 especial interest are the experiments made with material 

 from liver abscesses which were proved to contain no 

 other organism than the amoeba. Three such cases are 



