8 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
MATERIAL AND METHODS 
The cases were all drawn from the pediatrics ward in the 
Philippine General Hospital. There was no selection, the pa- 
tients simply being taken as they were admitted. The larger 
proportion included children admitted for the treatment of dis- 
orders of the digestive and respiratory tracts, which prepon- 
derate over other diseases treated in the children’s wards; but 
there were cases of malaria, beriberi, chorea, and other maladies. 
One or two developed cholera (a disease notoriously difficult to 
diagnose in children) during their stay in the hospital. Rela- 
tively few came in for treatment directed specifically against 
parasites. 
The general plan comprehended at least five separate stool 
examinations, extending over seven to ten days, as circum- 
stances permitted. At each examination three cover-glass prep- 
arations of the fresh material were carefully studied, five slides 
were fixed and stained for subsequent study, and at least 1 
gram of the stool (samples being taken from different parts 
of the stool) was concentrated by the method of Cropper and 
Row. (10) 
In the examination of the fresh specimen the faeces were 
diluted, when necessary, with physiological salt solution faintly 
tinted with neutral red. Cysts were studied with double strength 
Gram’s iodine solution containing a small amount of glycerin, 
and with Aragao’s modification of Hayem’s solution. The former 
was found to give the best results. A careful study in each 
case was made of the cellular exudate, and in nearly every case 
the microscopic diagnosis of bacillary dysentery was confirmed 
by the clinical course of the disease. The fseces were not 
examined bacteriologically. 
The stained preparations were all fixed in Bouin’s picro-aceto- 
formol solution. Two of the five were stained in Mayer’s hsem- 
alum, which is admirable for cysts, and the other three by 
Dobell’s iron-hsematein, which gives beautiful results with tro- 
phozoites. Occasionally smears were treated by the Benians 
Congo-red method for the demonstration of spirochsetes. The 
latter were very frequently detected in the fresh material and 
always appeared in the stained preparations. Smears from 
cases infected with flagellates were occasionally stained by Giem- 
sa’s method after methyl-alcohol fixation (following brief ex- 
posure to the vapor of osmic acid), because this gives an ex- 
cellent demonstration of the flagella which can then be readily 
counted. 
