xn, B, 3 Ab7'iol: Amoebic Abscess of the Liver 123 



Boggs(8) reported 63 endemic cases in the Southern States. 

 Among other observers corroborating the endemicity in the 

 United States of either intestinal amoebiasis or amoebic abscess 

 of the liver may be mentioned the names of Dock, Libman, and 

 Spelman and Wherry. 



There are no data of its occurrence in the Philippines before 

 the American occupation, probably due to the fact that at that 

 time it was not clinically identified and practically no studies 

 on amoebae had been made. Musgrave(9) reported 26 cases of 

 amoebic hepatic abscess occurring among foreigners in Manila. 

 Up to 1906 he never saw a case in a Filipino. Strong, McDill, 

 Herzog, Clegg, and Fernandez, (lO) however, reported a few 

 cases in the natives. Crowell(ll) reported 9 cases of amoebic 

 abscess encountered in a series of 1,000 autopsies, 6 occurring in 

 Filipinos and 3 in Americans. Gilman,(i2) in a series of 100 

 autopsies, encountered it in only 1 subject, 



RELATION TO INTESTINAL AMCEBIASIS 



The intimate relation which exists between dysentery and 

 liver abscess has been pointed out by many observers. David- 

 son (4) says: 



Liver abscess is tropical because amoebic liver abscess is confined to the 

 tropics; and its prevalence in a given country or locality is determined 

 by the prevalence and severity of amoebic dysentery in such a country or 

 locality. 



With older observers, namely, Prague, (13) Altschul,(i3) 

 Marston,(l3) Burkardt,(i3) Baly,(i3) and Buchanan,(i3) during 

 whose time Amceba was but little known and neither bacillary 

 nor amoebic dysenteries were clinically well identified, abscess 

 of the liver in numerous autopsies in cases of dysenteries was 

 hardly encountered. Showing the presence of liver abscess in 

 cases of dysentery, Kruse and Pasquale(i3) found liver abscess 

 in 4 out of 11 ; Councilman and Lafleur in 6 out of 9 ; Strong (14) 

 in 14 out of 96 autopsies of amoebic colitis; Osier in 23 cases 

 out of 93 amoebic dysenteries; Robinson (15) records 12 per cent 

 liver abscess in 96 dysentery autopsies done in the First Reserve 

 Hospital, Manila, in 1899; Futcher(6) reports 27 liver abscesses 

 of proved amoebic character out of 119 cases of amoebic dysen- 

 tery; McDill, (16) in a review of over 100,000 cases of dysentery 

 in the eastern countries — 70,000 in India — shows 4,000 liver 

 abscess complications. Rogers (17) found it in 20 per cent in his 

 large series. Strong and Musgrave(i7) found liver abscess 

 twenty-three times in 100 fatal cases of amoebic dysentery ; these 

 cases were mostly American soldiers. Harris (17) found it in 15 



