December 9, 1915] 



NATURE 



401 



t-putation as being one of the most destructive 

 )f diseases. 



Dysentery, moreover, is one of the great dis- 

 uses attacking camps, and has been more 

 destructive to armies than powder and shot 

 (Osier). In the Federal service during the Civil 

 War, according to Woodward, there were 259,071 

 ases of acute and 28,451 cases of chronic dysen- 

 icry, and the disease prevailed widely in the 

 South African campaign, in the Frarco-German 

 War of 1870, in the Crimean War, and even 

 before the Battle of Agincourt in 141 5. In the 

 present campaign, too, dysentery has prevailed 

 both in the Western and Eastern seats of war — 

 in Gallipoli, for example, in the course of a few 

 months some 78,000 men were invalided on 

 account of sickness, a large proportion of whom 

 suffered from this disease. 



The two principal types of dysentery are the 

 amoebic and the bacillary, due respectively to an 

 amoebiform protozoon and to a group of closely- 

 allied bacteria, the dysentery bacilli. Amoebic 

 dvsentery or " amoebiasis " is essentially a disease 

 if the subtropical and tropical regions of the 

 -lobe, and is widespread over the continents of 

 \lrlca, Asia, and America, and is particularly 

 ommon in Egypt and India. The causative 

 parasite, the Entamoeba histolytica, is met with 

 as an organism resembling an ordinary amoeba 

 in the mucus passed in the acute stage of the 

 disease, and in the liver abscesses which fre- 

 quently complicate the disease. In this stage it is 

 actively motile, and has a diameter of i/iooo— 

 I 600 in. It has also an encysted resting stage, 

 found in the intervals between attacks and in 

 latent cases. 



Bacillary dysentery, on the other hand, is of 

 world-wide distribution, and is apt to occur in 

 epidemics, thus differing from amoebic dysentery. 

 Ogata first isolated and described a dysentery 

 bacillus in Japan ; this was followed by researches 

 by Shiga in the same country in 1898, and by 

 Kruse in Germany. They proved that the bacillus 

 is a specific one, and it was shown later that It 

 was the same bacillus which is now known as 

 the Bacillus dysenteriae of Shiga and Kruse. 

 Later other varieties were isolated by Flexner and 

 by Strong in the Philippines, and by Hiss and 

 Russell (the Y-bacillus). 



In England at the present time outbreaks of 

 dysentery chiefly affect asylum populations, and 

 these are almost always caused by the Bacillus 

 dysenteriae of the Flexner type. In one asylum 

 outbreak in England and in an epidemic in Scot-' 

 land Shiga's bacillus has been isolated. 



Almost all the cases of dysentery returning 

 from Gallipoli are of the bacillary variety, and 

 the experience of Ledingham, Penfold. and 

 Woodcock 1 appears to show that the infection 

 is chiefly with the Shiga bacillus, while in a 

 smaller number the Flexner bacillus is present. 

 From the eastern Mediterranean a few cases of 

 infection with the Entamoeba histolytica have 

 been reported. Among the French in the 



1 See Bri/. Mrd. Journ., Nov»mHer 13, 1915, p. 704. 



NO. 2406, VOL. 96] 



Argonne the large majority of the numerous cases 

 occurring there are due to the V-bacillus of Hiss 

 an4 Russell. In the Germany army on the west 

 front ca.ses due to the Flexner bacillus are re- 

 ported, while among the Austrians infection with 

 the Shiga bacillus is met with. 



In the treatment of amoebic dysentery emetine, 

 an alkaloid of ipecacuanha, is practically a 

 specific, and for the bacillary form anti-dysentery 

 serum is very successful. 



Outbreaks of dysentery in armies raise many 

 important problems for the sanitarian. The dis- 

 ease is partly water-borne, though, of course, 

 there is considerable opportunity for direct con- 

 tamination of food and person in camp and 

 trench life. The intestinal evacuations of cases 

 contain vast numbers of dysentery bacilli and, 

 unless disinfected, infect the locality, particularly 

 the trenches and their neighbourhood, where the 

 men are. attacked before removal to hospital, while 

 infection may be spread far and wide owing to the 

 fact that the bacillus does not necessarily dis- 

 appear from the patient with the onset of convales- 

 cence, but may remain in the body for a long time 

 after cessation of symptoms, so that the 

 "carrier" state becomes established. It would 

 probably be desirable to regard a case as possibly 

 infective for a period of three months after the 

 termination of the attack, but the exigencies of 

 war may prevent such a course. Bacteriological 

 examination ought also to be carried out so far 

 as possible to determine when an individual has 

 ceased to be a "carrier." 



At present a high .standard of general and 

 personal hygiene is the best preventive of the 

 disease. Attempts have been made to introduce 

 preventive inoculation against bacillary dysentery, 

 but with what success is not yet known. 



R. T. Hewlett. 



OILS AND FATS AS WAR SUPPLIES. 



THE discussion in the House of Commons last 

 week, on the export of oils to neutral coun- 

 tries bordering on Germany dealt with a matter 

 on which scientific knowledge might have been 

 brought to l)ear with great national advantage. 



There is no doubt that fats are the one material 

 that a country situated in northern Europe must 

 procure from without; indeed, the price of oils 

 current in Germany affords complete testimony 

 of the accuracy of this statement. Fats are of 

 value for two purposes : first, as an altogether 

 indispensable article of food, and, secondly, as a 

 source of glycerine, which is converted into nitro- 

 glycerine and becomes an ingredient of all pro- 

 pellent explosives. Apart from tallow, and per- 

 haps some small amount of linseed, Germany pro- 

 duces no other fat, and her stocks could have 

 lasted but a limited time only. The deficiency 

 has been made up by imports from tropical lands 

 through neutral countries, which, so long as we 

 have control of the seas, can only be obtained by 

 favour of Great Britain. 



One by one restrictions have been placed on 



