UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 20, No. 12, pp. 309-312, 4 figures in text April 21, 1922 



ENDAMOEBA DYSENTERIAE IN THE LYMPH 

 GLANDS OF MAN IN HODGKIN'S DISEASE 



BY 



CHARLES A. KOFOID, LUTHER M. BOYERS, M.D., and OLIVE SWEZY 



(Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory, University of California, and the Division of Parasitology, 

 Bureau of Communicable Diseases, California State Board of Health) 



Hodgkin's disease has come to be known since the investigations of 

 Reed (1902) and others as a clinical and pathological entity with a 

 specific histological picture, not a simple hyperplasia, but with changes 

 suggesting a chronic inflammatory process. The pathological agent, 

 however, is unknown. It is the purpose of this preliminary note to 

 make an announcement of the discovery of Endamoeba dysenteriac 

 in the lesions of the lymph glands in this disease. In a previous 

 communication (1922), we announced the coexistence of intestinal 

 amoebiasis with the cysts of Endamoeba dysenteriae in the stools, and 

 a diagnosis of Hogdkin's disease in the first two cases we examined, 

 with a probability of the coexistence in a third (Lincoln's case). The 

 mathematical probability of such a coincidence in the first three cases 

 on the basis of an incidence of amoebiasis at large of 4 per cent is 

 1 in 15,625. On the basis of 1 per cent incidence, it is 1 in 1,000,000. 

 Since then a fourth ease has been examined with an added instance 

 of coincidence, thus increasing the probability of an etiological con- 

 nection between this parasite and this disease of hitherto unknown 

 cause. 



This last case was an inguinal gland apparently but recently 

 attacked by the disease. Sections of this gland have been stained in 

 iron haematoxylin and systematically searched for evidences of amoebic 

 infection. In the territory of the gland most involved in the progress 

 of the pathological modifications due to the disease we have found 

 amoeboid cells with vesicular nuclei which we interpret as amoebae 

 (figs. 1,2, and 3). 



