69 



future. Its prevalence, therefore, need not be regarded witli 

 alarm. Nevertheless, the frequency with which it still occurs 

 indicates that conditions are still suitable for its dispersal ; and 

 as these conditions imply personal uncleanliness or faulty sanita- 

 tion, it is clear that, as a nation, we still have much to learn 

 about individual and communal hygiene. 



Moreover, though ^.AistoZyieca is often comparatively innocuous, 

 it is harmful and even dangerous to certain abnormally susceptible 

 individuals ; and if such persons are rare, they are, nevertheless, not 

 negligible. Consequently, it will be necessary in future for British 

 physicians to remember M histolytica when they are called upon to 

 treat cases of dysentery, chronic diarrhoea, 'ulcerative colitis', or 

 other intestinal ailments which may possibly be due to this 

 parasite ; and to remember it also when they encounter patients 

 displaying symptoms of hepatitis, hepatic abscess, and similar 

 disorders, in the causation of which E.. histolytica plays a part. 

 Amoebic dysentery is a disease which, if promptly and properly 

 treated, is usually amenable to specific therapy ; but one which, 

 when neglected or mistreated, often becomes chronic, leads to 

 much misery and unnecessary suffering, and frequently ter- 

 minates fatally. 



Fortunately, modern methods of diagnosis iave made it 

 possible to recognize the amoebic diseases with certainty ; and if 

 they have also revealed possibilities of trouble which have lain 

 hitherto unsuspected, they have at the same time put our know- 

 ledge of both the cause and the cure of these diseases on a sound 

 scientific foundation. Therefore, let the British physician grieve 

 not, nor be filled with forebodings at the outcome of the work 

 chronicled in these pages : but let him rather rejoice that it gives 

 him new light and new weapons — if he will but use them — for 

 his fight against disease and death. 



Refeeences. 



Armitage, F. L. (1919). Amoebic abscess of the brain : with notes on a case follow- 

 ing amoebic abscess of the liver. Journ. Trap. Med. & Hyg., xxii, 69. 



Bartlett, G. B. (1917). Pathology of dysentery in tlie Mediterranean Expedi- 

 tionary Force, 1915. Quart. Journ. Med., x, 185. 



Bassett-Smith, p. W. (1900). Abscess of the left lobe of the liver, with particular 

 reference to its amoebic causation. Brit. Med. Jaurn., ii, 552. 



Baylis, H. a. (1919). Incidence of Entamoeba histolytica and other intestinal pro- 

 tozoa among 400 healthy new entries to the Koyal Navy. Lancet, i, 54. 



(1920). Intestinal protozoal infections, among officers and men of the Eoyal 



Navy and Marines, dealt with at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, during 

 1916 to 1918. Journ. Boy. Nav. Med. Sere., vi, 342. 



Carter, H. F., Matthews, J. E., Mackihnoh, D. L., and Smith, A. Malins (1918). 

 Protozoological examinations made in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medi- 

 cine. [Part III of A Report upon 2,360 enteritis ' convalescents ' receiyed at 

 "Liverpool from various Expeditionary Forces.] Medical Besearch Committee, 

 Special Beport Series, No. 7. (London.) 



