AMOEBA COLI 35 



certainly does not take place per anum.' Moreover, some authors- who 

 have received intestinal amoebae from various sources state that there is 

 no morphological difference between the amoebae of tropical and European 

 dysentery ; and that a bacterium of which there are apparently several 

 varieties is the cause of dysentery in the temperate as well as in the 

 tropical and subtropical zone. 1 The specific nature of these bacteria is 

 proved above all by the agglutination which the blood serum effects on the 



bacteria in persons ill with or recovered from 

 the infection, the serum of healthy persons 

 not causing agglutination. Those forms of 

 dysentery caused by bacteria and in which 

 amoebae are either not found or very rarely, 

 are excluded from the discussion, and further 



, . t J.-U proofs will be necessary in order to gain 

 FIG. 4. Amceba coll from the 



section of the intestine of a cat general recognition for the etiology of the 



which had been infected with so-called amcebic enteritis or amoebic dysen- 



the intestinal amoeba of a man. t It t however, be mentioned that 



Stained with alum - carmine. 



(After Kovacs.) Kartulis endeavoured to test the methods of 



Celli and Fiocca (killing the amoebae by warm- 

 ing) and of Casagrandi and Barbagallo (killing the amoeba with distilled 

 water), but was unable to confirm their results. Kartulis, by means of test 

 cultures on various media, assured himself of the absolute purity of the 

 abscess-pus containing amoebae which he used for his experiments. 



A few authors take up an intermediate position, in so far as they admit 

 of the existence of various species of parasitic amoebae in man. One of 

 these they consider innocuous, because it is found more or less frequently in 

 healthy persons, and comes under observation in very different intestinal 

 disorders, while another they believe to be the cause of amcebic enteritis. 

 Councilman and Lafleur do not agree with this view 4 ; they designate 

 the amoeba of dysentery plainly as Amoeba dysenteries. Kruse and Pasquale 

 use the same designation, and reserve the old term, Amceba coli, Losch, for 

 the non-infectious species. Quincke and Roos distinguish three species : 



1 Janowski, I.e., &c., and others. 



2 Roemer, F., " Amoeb. bei Dys. u. Enteritis" (Miinch. med. Wchschr, 1898, xlv.. 

 No. 2, p. 41). 



1 Celli, A., and R. Fiocca, I.e. ; Laveran, I.e. ; Zancarol, " Pathog.- d. abces du 

 foie " (Rev. d. chirurg., 1893, xiii., p. 671 ; Ref. in C. f. B. u. P., 1893, xiv -> P- 638) ; 

 Arnaud., '-' Reck, sur I'ttiol. de la dys, ai'gue. d. pays chaud " (Ann. Inst. Pasteur., 1894, 

 viii.); Silvestri, E., de " Contrib. allo stud, del I'etiol. d. dissent.,'' Torino, 1895 .' Celli, 

 A., " Eziol. d. diss." (Ann. d'igien: sperim, 1896, vi., p. 204) ; Shiga, K., " Ueb. d. Dysen- 

 terie bacillus " (C. /. B., P. u. I., 1898, xxiv., pp. 817, 870, 912) ; Celli, A,, and G. Valenti, 

 " Nochm. iib. d. Aet. d. Dys." (C. /. B., P. u. I., 1899, xxv., p. 481); Escherich, Z., 

 " Aet. d. Dys" (ibid., 1899, xxvi., p. 385) ; Flexner, G., " The Etiology of Tropical Dys 

 entery " (ibid., 1900, xxviii., p. 62^) ; Kruse, W., " Ueb. d. Ruhr, also Volkskrkht. u. 

 ihr Erreger " (Dtsch. med. Wchschr., 1900, xxvi., p. 637) ; " Weit. Unters. ub. d. Ruhr 

 u. d. Ruhrbacillen " (ibid., 1901, xxvii., pp. 370, 386) ; Volagussa, F., " Aetiol. u. Serum 

 ther. der Kinderdys " (Ann. d'igien. sper., 1901, x.) ; Centralbl. fiir B., P. und /., 1901, 

 xxix., p. 639); Lavkowiz, X., " Enierococc. als Ruhrerre^." (ibid., p. 635). 



1 The reason that Raph. Blanchard, who in 1885 had already mentioned the amoeba 

 of dysentery as a special species (" Amoeba intestinalis ," in Traite de Zool. mSd., vol. i., 

 Paris, 1885, p. 15), is not included here, is that the author himself changed his views, 

 and only recognises one species of amoeba, the A mceba coli, in the intestine of man (Mai. 

 paras., &>c-., 1895, p. 658). 



