

530 DYSENTERY. 



undermined character. These lesions are considered by 

 Councilman and Lafleur to be characteristic of amoebic 



dysentery. In the 



"^^^ fc^^. ^ ver aDscesses associ- 



R^ ated with dysentery 



Rk the amoebae are usually 

 Wk to be found, and not 

 infrequently are the 

 only organisms present 

 (Fig. 126). They are 

 most numerous at the 

 ^^ spreading margin, and 



A v'4P ^^ tn i probably explains 



a fact pointed out by 

 Manson, that examina- 

 tion of the contents 

 first removed may give 



FIG. 126. -Section of wall of liver abscess, a ne a at i ve resu l t w hile 

 showing an amoeba of spherical form with , 

 vacuolated protoplasm, x 1000. fhey may be detected 



in the discharge a day 



or two later. The action here on the tissues is of an 

 analogous nature, namely, a necrosis with softening and 

 partial liquefaction, attended by little or no suppurative 

 change. The amoebae have also been found in the sputum 

 when a liver abscess has ruptured into the lung, as not very 

 infrequently happens. 



Relations to the Disease. It may be stated in the 

 first place that cultures of these amoebae outside the body 

 have not been obtained. Kartulis announced that he had 

 cultivated the organism on straw infusion, but it is now 

 recognised that his results are erroneous, the amoebae 

 observed by him being probably derived from the infusion 

 itself. In fact, everything seems to show that the amoebae 

 in their usual form rapidly disintegrate outside the body, 

 and it is still unknown in what form they survive and lead 

 to the propagation of the disease. The points of distinction 

 between the amoeba of dysentery and the ordinary amoeba 

 coli, so far as the morphology is concerned, are that the 



