59 



genous origin'. (They call the parasites, however, 'Amoeba 

 Histolytica ' or ' A. H.') This large number of French cases was 

 discovered within the limits of only a ' small area ' and ' in the 

 space of several weeks '. These authors carried out an investiga- 

 tion of the stools of certain ' individuals who did not show, at 

 the time of examination, any dysenteric symptoms '. They 

 examined, in all, 200 such persons, with the following results : 



Of 7% orderlies in Hospital S. (which had received many cases 

 of dysentery), 10 were found to be passing cysts of E. histoly- 

 tica. Out of these 10 cases, only 4 had a previous history of 

 having suffered from intestinal ailments. 



Of 32 orderlies in Hospital G. (in which dysentery cases had 

 been ' relatively very rare '), 2 showed cysts of E. histolytica 

 in their stools. Only 1 of these had a previous history of 

 dysentery. 



Of 96 soldiers, who were in these two hospitals for various 

 ailments, 22 showed E. histolytica cysts. A dysenteric history 

 was elicited for 19 of these cases. 



Among these 200 persons there were thus, in all, 34 individuals 

 infected with E. histolytica. Of these, 24 had a dysenteric history, 

 while 10 had apparently shown no symptoms due to their 

 infections — i.e. were 'healthy' contact carriers. From these 

 findings Ravaut and Krolunitski drew the conclusion- that as 

 many as 5 per cent, of healthy persons, in the region studied, are 

 infected with E. histolytica. Although this conclusion has been 

 copied — and apparently accepted — by some reviewers of these 

 results, it is evident that the findings recorded do not warrant 

 such a deduction. They are of considerable interest; but 

 obviously they do not indicate what percentage of healthy 

 persons, with no history of dysentery, is infected with E. histoly- 

 tica : and the authors' comparison of these findings with the 

 results of Mathis — who found 8 per cent, of such persons infected 

 in Tonkin — is hardly possible. It should be added that the 

 histories of the individuals in these series are not recorded, so 

 that it is not possible to state how many — if any — of them can 

 be regarded as indigenous cases of E. histolytica infection. 



Labb^ (1919) has recently recorded 8 cases of ' amoebic 

 dysentery ' which he has observed in Paris. (The author refers 

 to the finding of ' amoebae ' and ' cysts ' in the stools, but does 

 not mention the species to which they belonged.) He states that 

 ' sometimes the disease might have been contracted during a 

 sojourn outside of France ', but ' sometimes the amoebiasis was 

 contracted in France — even in Paris '. Though his cases may be 

 cases of amoebic dysentery which occurred in France, the par- 

 ticulars recorded do not show how many of the patients studied 

 had really acquired their infections in that country. (Only one 

 case is definitely stated never to have been abroad, and at least 

 two appear to have contracted their dysentery in the tropics.) 



The Occurrence of E. histolytica in Holland, — About two years 



