636 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
stools passed by the patient during the twenty-four hours. He 
usually failed to call the nurse when his bowels moved, and we 
had reason to suspect, in many instances, that the results ulti- 
mately found by the nurse represented the product of two or 
more stools. This naturally makes our clinical report more or 
less incomplete. 
The patient refused all food and grew steadily weaker. He 
was given appropriate stimulation, but showed no improvement. 
Balantidium coli was first found in his faeces by Doctor Tor- 
billo, of the hospital laboratory, on December 23. The stool 
was negative for Bacillus dysenterise. In the absence of any 
treatment of proved efficacy, santonin was given in the hope 
of benefiting the patient. It apparently had no effect. 
The condition of the patient grew steadily worse. From 
time to time he vomited his food and finally refused to take 
any. As a consequence of this he became very weak. He was 
given proctoclysis with normal salt solution, which was usually 
poorly retained. On January 10, as the patient refused to 
take anything by mouth, an attempt was made to administer 
nutritive enemata. As he w^as, at that time, having almost 
continuous bowel movements accompanied by much pain and 
tenesmus, this attempt, as might be expected, was not successful. 
Better results were secured later. 
On January 10 the stool was examined for the first time by 
the senior author. It was totally devoid of faecal matter and 
consisted mainly of balantidia, pieces of desquamated epithe- 
lium, and leucocytes, all suspended in mucus. Small numbers 
of erythrocytes were scattered through the mass, but the stool 
was scarcely “bloody.” The balantidia, which were present in 
immense numbers, showed considerable variation in size, as if 
division were proceeding somewhere at an exceedingly rapid 
rate. A few dividing forms were seen in the stained prepa- 
rations that were made at the time. All were in approximately 
the same stage of division — an early telophase — as if something 
had occurred to arrest the process. 
There was little change in the condition of the patient for 
the next few days, aside from continued loss of strength. On 
the morning of January 13, however, the administration of ben- 
zyl benzoate was started in doses of ten drops of the 20 per cent 
alcoholic solution given in water three times a day. In the 
afternoon, the patient seemed to have experienced some relief, 
and he took food without resistance. The following day he was 
distinctly better and gave no sign of the presence of either pain 
