﻿IX, B, 1 Willets: Treatment of Entamcebiasis 99 



about 7 per cent, of them cleared up clinically before medical 

 treatment began. Accordingly, these cases were placed in our 

 nondysenteric series. 



The results obtained in our several series of cases have been 

 placed in accompanying tables. They will need but slight 

 comment. The laboratory findings have been given in detail in 

 order to emphasize the importance of securing a sufficient num- 

 ber of negative examinations before a case is pronounced cured. 



DYSENTERIC CASES 



One of the dysenteric cases died. This case was treated ex- 

 clusively with emetine which was administered intravenously 

 excepting during the first day of treatment. Lesions of acute 

 and chronic entamoebic dysentery were found at autopsy. The 

 patient might have been saved if emetine had been administered 

 entirely by the hypodermic method ; perhaps he would have died 

 under any form of treatment. 



As shown in Table VI, emetine was much more effective in 

 causing the disappearance of symptoms than ipecac. Of the 

 emetine cases, 91.9 per cent recovered in an average of 3.6 days 

 with the average administration of 0.287 gram of emetine. The 

 corresponding figures for the ipecac cases are 62.5 per cent, 8.5 

 days, and 16.3 grams. 



When considered from the viewpoint of expelling entamoebse 

 from the intestinal tract of the symptomatically cured cases, 

 the two drugs were about equally efficacious. Two consecutive 

 final negatives were present (by actual occurrence and by ap- 

 proximation) in 61.4 per cent of 10 recovered emetine cases and 

 in 65.0 per cent of 10 recovered ipecac cases. The average 

 number of days from the beginning of treatment to the first 

 of the two consecutive final negatives was 8.25 in the emetine 

 cases and 8.5 in the ipecac cases, and the average amount of the 

 drug administered during this period was 0.484 gram of emetine 

 and 16.67 gi'ams of ipecac. 



It may be stated that the average number of days from the 

 beginning of treatment to the end of observation in the cases 

 discharged positive for entamoebae was 10.8 in emetine cases and 

 11.6 in ipecac cases. During this period an average of 0.667 

 gram of emetine and 16.0 grams of ipecac was administered. 

 Failure to obtain negative laboratory results in these cases, 

 therefore, was not due to observation for a lesser number of 

 days or the administration of a lesser total amount of drug than 

 to recover cases in either the emetine or the ipecac series. 



