DYSENTERY 559 



has been ascribed to its action.) Filtrates of cultures were found 

 by S. Martin to produce a fall of temperature, collapse, and diarrhoea 

 in rabbits. 



CANINE DISTEMPER. According to Galli- Valeric, 1 this is caused 

 by a bacillus (B. caniculce) intermediate in character between the 

 coli-typhoid and hsemorrhagic septicaemic groups of organisms. 

 Torrey and Rahe 2 confirm Ferry and M'Gowan's observations on 

 a bacillus (B. bronchisepticus) present in distemper. It does not 

 ferment any sugars and litmus milk becomes markedly alkaline. 



Evidence has also been brought forward that distemper is due 

 to a filter passer (Carre). Probably the term " distemper " may 

 include several different diseases. 



DYSENTERY. Dysentery must be regarded as a term applied 

 to a series of clinical symptoms associated with colitis which is 

 due to different specific agents. There are at least two forms of 

 the disease, one, the so-called tropical or endemic dysentery, met 

 with especially in the East, and characterised by chronicity, a ten- 

 dency to relapses, amenability to treatment with ipecacuanha, and 

 the occurrence of the single liver abscess as a sequela ; the other, 

 epidemic dysentery, met with in all parts of the world, particularly 

 in times of war and famine, not amenable to ipecacuanha, and not 

 followed by liver abscess. There are also probably other forms 

 occurring in small outbreaks or sporadically. Tropical dysentery 

 is due to the Amoeba coli, which is found abundantly in the stools, 

 especially in the acute stage, and also in the liver abscesses (see 

 p. 484). 



In the epidemic dysentery of Japan and other parts of the world 

 a bacillus, or group of bacilli, has been isolated by Shiga, Flexner, 

 Strong, Kruse, and others. This is the B. dysenteries described 

 at p. 376. 



Coli-form bacilli have been isolated from cases of dysentery. 

 Calmette in Tonkin isolated the B. pyocyaneus, and this organism 

 seems to have been the cause of a small outbreak in New York 

 State investigated by Lartigau. 3 In Japan, Ogata isolated a fine 

 Gram-staining, liquefying bacillus which does not seem to have 

 been met with by subsequent observers. Spirochaetes have been 

 found in large numbers in a form of dysentery occurring in Bordeaux. 



Vedder and Duval, 4 as a result of the study of a number of cases 



1 Centr. f. Bakt. (Ref.), xli, 1908, p. 563. See also M'Gowan, Journ. 

 Palhol. and Bacterial., vol. xv, 1911, p. 372 (Bibliog.) and xvi, p. 257. 



2 Journ. Med. Research, xxvii, 1912, p. 291 (Bibliog.). 



3 Journ. Exper. Med., vol. iii, No. 6, p. 595. 



4 Ibid. vol. vi, 1902, No. 2, p. 181. 



