AMCEBA COLI 



33 



(Lobas), in North and South America (Musser, Stengel, Councilman, Howard, 

 Osier, Dock, Lutz, Fajardo, Roemer). 



The interest aroused in the intestinal amoebae of man is to be ascribed not 

 so much to their world-wide distribution as to the fact that they are supposed to 

 be connected with a serious disease to which man is subject, namely, dysentery. 

 The Commission despatched to Egypt and India in 1883 to investigate cholera ' 

 not only succeeded in discovering the bacillus of cholera, but also col- 

 lected information regarding dysentery. In Egypt, Koch performed autopsies 

 on five fatal cases of dysentery. In four of these, in addition to bacteria, 

 he found amoebae at the bottom of the ulcers (on sections) ; in the fifth 

 case the ulcers in the large intestine were nearly or entirely cicatrised. 

 During the life of these patients amoebae could not be found in the stools. 

 The same author made similar observations in India. At about the same 

 time Kartulis, in Alexandria, discovered amoeba-like bodies in the stools 

 of six persons suffering from chronic inflammation of the bowels, or diar- 

 rhoea, and he described these as " giant 

 amoebae."-' Encouraged by Koch's researches, 

 Kartulis' continued his studies on dysentery, 

 and was able to confirm the presence of 

 amoebae in every case of undoubted dysentery 

 (more than 150 cases), whereas they were 

 entirely absent in other bowel complaints ; he 

 also succeeded in demonstrating amoebae in 

 sections from the large intestine, but only 

 in cases of dysentery, and not in other 

 intestinal diseases involving ulceration of the 

 bowel. Further researches on over 500 cases 

 confirmed the previous observations. Living 

 amoebae were likewise found in the pus of 

 liver abscesses, which frequently follow tropical 

 dysentery, the parasites presumably passing 

 from the intestine to the liver by way of 

 the blood-vessels. R. Koch's (I.e.} researches 



FIG. 3. Amoeba coli, Losch, 

 in the mucus of a dysenteric 

 stool, with red blood corpuscles. 

 (After Kovacs.) 



would lead one to form the same conclusion. Finally, Kartulis 4 was able to 

 confirm by experiments similar to those of Losch, which were so widely dis- 

 puted, that animals, especially cats, injected with dysenteric faeces or pus con- 

 taining amoebae easily developed a disease resembling endemic dysentery. 

 In reply to the objection raised, that in such experiments impure material 

 was used, and that the disease in the animals experimented upon was due to 

 other agents (bacteria, &c.), Kartulis communicated a successful experiment 

 in which the infection had been conveyed by pus free of bacteria, but 

 containing amoebae. 



1 Koch, R., and G. Gaffky, " Ber it. d. Th.it. d. z. Erforsch. d. Cholerabac. ents. 

 Commits." (Arb. a. d. Kais. Gesundheitsamte, 1887, iii., Berl., 1887). 



- Kartulis, " Ueber Riesenamceben (?) bei chron. Darmentz. d. Aegypt." (Virchow's 

 Arch., 1885, xcix., p. 145). 



3 Kartulis, " Z. Mtiol. d. Dysent." (ibid., 1886, cv.) ; " Z. Mtiol. d. Dys. i. Aeg." 

 (C. /. B. u. P. 1887, V., p. 745) ; " Ueb. trop. Leberabs. u. ihr Verh. z. Dys/' (Virchow's 

 Arch., 1889, cxviii., p. 97) ; " Einiges Hb. d. Pathog. d. Dysentene-Amceb." (Centralbl. 

 f. B. u. P., 1891, ix., p. 365). 



' Kartulis, "Dysenteric " (Spec. Path, und Ther. von H. Nothnagel, v., 3, Wien, 1806). 



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