The Philippine 

 Journal of Science 



JANUARY, 1923 



investigations concerning the treatment of 

 amcebic dysentery 



By Andrew Watson Sellards 

 Of the Bureau of Science, Manila 



Lamberto Leiva 

 j and Surgery, University of the Philippines 



INTRODUCTION 



Amoebic dysentery is one of the more-important diseases 

 caused by protozoa in which laboratory methods for the experi- 

 mental study of its treatment have not yet been established. 

 Many experiments, more or less isolated, have been recorded. 

 In contradistinction to the work of Harris, (6) Vedder(i6) showed 

 that in vitro emetine is the active agent in ipecacuanha that is 

 responsible for its toxic action on cultural amoebae. Rogers (12) 

 soon demonstrated, very convincingly, that emetine possesses a 

 definite curative action in entamcebic infections in man. It 

 seemed almost superfluous, therefore, to test the effect of emetine 

 on lower animals. Dale and DobellO) in a very valuable paper 

 and, later, Mayer (9) reported that emetine has no beneficial 

 action in the treatment of amoebic dysentery in the cat. 



Notwithstanding the striking benefit produced by emetine in 

 amoebic infections in the majority of patients, the treatment 

 still leaves much to be desired. The development of an appro- 

 priate laboratory method would facilitate the study of the effect 

 of emetine or its derivatives and of other products in amoebic 

 infections. This paper deals with : I. Experiments upon cultural 



