288 BACTERIOLOGY 



zoa in the stools is a fact that has long been known, but 

 Losch was the first to connect them with dysentery, in a 

 paper published in 1875 and describing a case of that 

 disease in which they were present. Many observations 

 have been since made, the most important communications 

 on the subject being those of Kartulis from Egypt, and of 

 Councilman and Laiieur in America (to the latter of which 

 the above name is due, Losch having called the protozoon 

 Amceba coli). The variety of the disease ascribed to its 

 agency is that known as tropical dysentery, which differs 

 both clinically and pathologically from other forms, and 

 the amoeba was found by Kartulis ' in 500 cases of this 

 prior to the appearance of his second paper, as well as 

 in every case of dysenteric liver abscess examined, while it 

 was absent from ' idiopathic ' liver abscesses ; and Council- 

 man and Lafleur ^ found it in all the fourteen cases on 

 which their very elaborate monograph is based. 



According • to the latter observers, the amoebse when at 

 rest are round or slightly oblong bodies, consisting of an 

 outer pale homogeneous substance enclosing a somewhat 

 greenish highly-refractive mass, which contains vacuoles 

 of various sizes and a nucleus. Movement is their dis- 

 tinctive feature, however, and consists first of a progressive 

 motion, and secondly of a protrusion and withdrawal of 

 pseudopodia, both of which vary in activity. The pseudo- 

 podia are formed from the outer homogeneous part, 

 which may, however, be otherwise invisible both in the 

 resting and moving state. The amoebfe often contain 

 foreign bodies, such as red corpuscles, pus-cells, blood- 

 pigment, micrococci, bacilli and their spores, &c. 



Entering probably with the food, they pass on until the 

 large intestine is reached, where the alkalinity necessary 



' Virchow's Archiv, Bd. 118, 1889. 



'' Johns Hopkins Hasp. Reports, vol. ii. Nos. 7, 8, 9. 



