15 



British civilians who have never, at any time, been abroad. 

 ISTobody who realizes the difficulties involved in such an under- 

 taking will be disposed to complain of the smallness of this 

 aiumber. On the contrary, if will, I think, be generally conceded 

 "that to have found and examined so large a number of persons of 

 this class constitutes, when all the circumstances are borne in 

 mind, a performance which does the greatest credit to all the 

 workers concerned. 



The investigation was gradually discontinued in 1919, following 

 tlie Armistice and the disbanding of the Army, and the consequent 

 reorganization of Dysentery Hospitals and Ddp6ts and the return 

 of the temporary protozoologists to their ordinary civil employ- 

 ments. By the beginning of the present year (1920) the reports 

 from all the centres, together with the cards, duly filled up, were 

 in my hands ; and it was then possible to collect, analyse, and 

 ■classify the results obtained from all sources.' This is the main 

 ipurpose of the present Report. 



It should be added here that at the time when the War Office 

 'Committee decided to promote these inquiries, a similar investiga- 

 ition had already been begun in the Navy. After the publication 

 ■of the results obtained by the Liverpool workers. Surgeon Captain 

 P. W. Bassett-Smith, C.B., E..N., urged upon the Admiralty the 

 importance of investigating the new entries to the Royal Navy, 

 in order to ascertain the extent to which they were infected with 

 E. histolytica and other intestinal protozoa. Accordingly, arrange- 

 iments were made by Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander P. Fildes, 

 R.N.V.R., at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, for carrying out 

 ithis investigation. Examinations were made by Mr. H. A. Baylis 

 — one of the protozoologists previously trained for this work, like 

 the others, by me in London — of 400 healthy men joining the Navy 

 and Marines. Reports on his findings have already been published 

 (Baylis, 1919, 1920), and will be noted in greater detail later. It 

 will suffice to notice here that ten cases of E. histolytica infection 

 were found among these men — all healthy individuals, drawn from 

 various parts of the British Isles. 



It is not possible to include this series with the others for the 

 purposes of this Report. Particulars of past history were not 

 obtained for every case, as 'it was thought sufficient to make 

 special inquiry as to the history of each case found to be a carrier 

 oi Entamoeba histolytica'. Consequently, as some of the cases had 

 probably been abroad, they cannot be regarded as forming a series 

 exactly comparable with the others in this respect. A set of cards 

 was sent to Mr. Baylis, but at that time his investigations were 

 already in progress, so that he was only able to enter on them 

 particulars of the cases infected with E. histolytica. As Mr. Baylis 

 kindly returned these cards to me when his inquiry was published, 

 I have been able to utilize them in considering his results and 

 comparing them with the rest. 



In dealing with the material at my disposal for this Report 

 I have not confined myself to analysing the work that was insti- 

 tuted by the War Office Committee. This work, to be properly 



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