CHAPTER X 



DYSENTERY 



History. Epidemics characterized by frequent, painful and bloody 

 discharges from the bowels are mentioned in the oldest medical rec- 

 ords. They have been observed in both civil and military life and 

 have at times contributed largely to the high mortality of cities and 

 camps. However, no differentiation of the diseases marked by these 

 general symptoms was possible before the development of the science 

 of bacteriology began. As early as 1875 Losch of St. Petersburg 

 reported the presence of amebas in the stools of a patient with bloody 

 dysentery. Some years later (1886) Kartulis made like reports con- 

 cerning the dysentery of Egypt. These widely separated observers 

 were the first scientific contributors to our knowledge of what is 

 known as amebic dysentery. When work along this line was taken up 

 in dfferent parts of the world, it became evident that there are two 

 forms of this disease, amebic and bacillary. Further discussion of the 

 former will be reserved for another section. 



When it was shown that amebas are not found in many severe 

 epidemics of dysentery, so many investigators in different parts of 

 the world began the search for other causal agents and so many find- 

 ings were reported, that it is now quite impossible to say with abso- 

 lute certainty to whom the greatest credit is due. There have been 

 many claims to priority and it is possible that the names now gen- 

 erally attached to the several bacilli known to produce this disease 

 are not those of the men who first saw them. However, I will not 

 add to the controversy over these matters but will use the names 

 generally employed by writers on this subject. 



In 1898 Shiga showed that amebas were not found in the severe 

 epidemics of dysentery prevalent in Japan at that time, but he did 

 find in the stools during life and in the body after death a well- 

 defined and easily recognized bacillus. Since this organism was found 

 in all cases, and since its cultures were agglutinated by high dilutions 

 of blood serum of those ill with this disease, Shiga felt justified in 



