ESSAYS ON BACTERIOLOGY. 65 



3. Dysentery. — Eyidence upo;a the pathogenic 

 properties of the amoeba coli has been accumulating. 

 Kartulis claims to have secured pure cultures of the 

 amoeba in decoctions of fresh straw. He claims also 

 to have made successful inoculations in cats. Owing 

 to the work of many foreign investigators and of 

 Councilman, Welsh, Osier and others in America, the 

 diagnostic value of the amoeba coli seems to have been 

 well established, as also its causative relation to other 

 than dysenteric lesions, especially to hepatic abscesses. 



4. Diphtheria. — No important change has oc- 

 curred in the bacteriology of this disease. Previous 

 opinions have simply been strengthened. Recent in- 

 vestigations seem to show that the diphtheria bacilli 

 are secondarily diffused through the body more fre- 

 quently than has been heretofore supposed. The 

 most important work on diphtheria has been that al- 

 ready mentioned, namely, the successful protective 

 and curative experiments of Behring and Kitasato. 



5. Erysipelas. — The uncertainty as to the identity 

 of the streptococcus of erysipelas and the streptococcus 

 pyrogenes remains. Frsenkel, among others, has 

 done work which seems to give additional proof of the 

 identity of these organisms. 



6. Gonorrhoea. — I have only to repeat and em- 

 phasize a statement made in a former report, that 

 while the microscopic discovery of the gonococcus 

 may be looked upon as very strong evidence for patho- 

 logical and clinical purposes, its medico-legal value is 



