THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



B. Tropical Medicine 



Vol. VIII OCTOBER, 1913 No. 5 



EXPERIMENTAL BALANTIDIASIS 



By Ernest Linwood Walker 

 (From the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



Seven plates 



Balantidiasis is the intestinal parasitization of man with the 

 ciliated protozoan, Balantidium coli Malmsten, which may give 

 rise to a chronic diarrhoea or a fatal dysentery. The first case 

 reported was by Malmsten at Stockholm in 1857. Strong (1904) 

 was able to collect from the literature 125 cases of balantidiasis. 

 Since then and up to the present time 12 cases, of which the 

 literature is available, have been reported. Therefore, in the 

 fifty-six years following the discovery of the parasite only about 

 137 cases of infection of man have been reported in medical 

 literature. This makes it appear that balantidiasis is a compar- 

 atively rare infection, and consequently of more scientific in- 

 terest than practical importance. 



In the Philippine Islands, however, parasitization vnth this 

 protozoan appears to be relatively prevalent. The first case de- 

 scribed here was by Strong in 1904. Subsequently a few cases 

 were reported, notably 3 fatal cases with necropsy by Bowman 

 (1909 and 1911). Willets (1913) found 2 cases in the examina- 

 tion of 400 stools in the Batanes Islands, north of Luzon, and I 

 found 2 cases in the examination of 48 stools at San Jose, Min- 

 doro. Thirteen cases have been observed at the Philippine 

 General Hospital. In the Bilibid Prison 35 cases have been 

 found in the last two and a half years, an average of more than 

 1 a month. From March 4 to March 25 of the present year, a 

 period of twenty-one days, 8 new cases of parasitization with 



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JAN 7 1914 



