2G2 EDITORIAL. 



that 2-5 per cent of stools of all people examined contained amoebae, which 

 is a smaller percentage than the findings in the autopsy room. These 

 figures would indicate infestation without infection to lie very rare and 

 would justify the conclusion that we are all too prone to require the 

 presence of blood and mucus in the stools before we state that actual 

 amoebic ulceration of the bowel is present. 



Dr. Henry S. Greenleaf, captain, United States Army. — Has anyone 

 who has been making a study of these jiarasites found evidences of guinea 

 worms? When I was in Mindanao I found a Moro pulling something 

 out of a sore and I asked the interpreter what he was doing. The man 

 pointed to a little worm which had been pulled out of the sore and from 

 his description I thought it might be a guinea worm. Is this parasite 

 common among the natives ? I have not looked up the subject. 



Dr. Musgrave. — I have been looking for a guinea worm for nine years. 



Dr. Henry J. Nichols, first lieutenant, United States Army, Division 

 Hospital, Manila. — I have had an opportunity to examine 400 soldiers 

 doing active field duty, and 200 of these had amoeba? present in their 

 stools. Twenty-five per cent had symptoms of dysentery, and of this 25 

 per cent only about one-half showed the presence of active amoeba?. 



Dean C. Worcester, Secretary of the Interior, Philippine Coin mission, 

 Manila. — I have seen evidence on the subject of amoebic infection and it 

 leads me to believe that if an amceba is not pathogenic at one time, it 

 may become so at another. It has been suggested, in connection with 

 some of our diseases in the Philippines, that dysentery is a white man's 

 disease, but I believe it is true that a very large percentage of the native 

 inhabitants have dysentery in a chronic form, and this is one of the causes 

 tending toward their disinclination to labor. I was very much interested 

 in Dr. Garrison's paper. The Secretary of War, while in Manila, called 

 my attention to the very satisfactory results which had attended the 

 efforts made on such a large scale in Porto Eico to rid the inhabitants 

 of intestinal parasitic worms and suggested that similar work might be 

 necessary here. It would appear from Dr. Garrison's paper that this is 

 not probable. However, it sticks in my memory that I have read a 

 report of Dr. Heiser on conditions in Bilibid Prison which showed 

 infection with parasitic worms to be quite general among the inmates 

 of that institution and that when . systematic measures were taken to 

 rid the convicts of these parasites, the death rate from other causes was 

 immediately and materially reduced, showing that the patients had been 

 so weakened by the presence of these parasites that they had fallen ready 

 victims to other diseases. I should like to know whether Dr. Heiser can 

 confirm this statement. 



Dr. Victor G. Heiser, Director of the Bureau of Health, Manila; pro- 

 fessor of hygiene, Philippine Medical School. — I believe the mortality 

 incidence in the Philippines to be very intimately associated with the 



