T. Bentham 
7o 
l o 
Group I. 
Group I does not show any features of very great interest. (See Table I.) 
The percentage of amoebic infections is necessarily very low, because of several 
important factors which have to be taken into consideration. In the first 
place an enormous proportion of these patients had suffered from bacillary 
dysentery in some form or another, and there was no reason to believe that 
they were otherwise infected. Secondly, and especially towards the end of 
1918, a large number of troops had been successfully treated in the Salonika 
Hospitals, or at least showed a temporary benefit from such treatment. 
Thiidly, there seems to be, on the part of some medical officers, an insatiate 
craving for the discovery of animal parasites in every patient. In consequence 
the stools from patients suffering from such diseases as phthisis, malaria 
(quinine colitis), influenza, etc., were frequently sent up to the laboratory— 
some for repeated examination for animal parasites. 
Table I. 
Troops invalided from Salonika to Malta. 
•Total No. examined 2485. 
Infected with: 
Entamoeba histolytica ... 
Free Amoebae (not determined) 
Other Protozoa ... 
Taenia sagi nata ... 
Taenia solium ... 
Fasciola hepatica 
Trichuris trichiura 
Ascaris lumbricoides 
Strongyloides stercoralis 
Ankylosloma duodenale 
In March 1917 an attempt was made to determine the number of amoebic 
carriers in a certain convalescent camp on the Island. The convalescent 
dysenteries were confined to a camp of their own, and it was in this camp that 
a small laboratory was set up for investigation of the stools. Here again the 
results were somewhat disappointing. There were about 1300 convalescent 
dysenteries in this camp, but owing to the limited time at our disposal, only 
508 cases could be allowed one examination each. This was partly owing to 
the difficulty of getting the men to provide specimens. Amongst these 508 
|cases only 52 were found to be carriers of Entamoeba histolytl, Ind there 
i were 64 cases of Giardia (= Lamblia) infection. This provided the somewhat 
low percentage of 10-2 for the former. It will be seen from Table 1. however 
that the total percentage for E. histolytica in the Salonika troops is appreciable 
higher than this, on account of the fact that the majority of individuals were 
examined more than once each. 
No. % 
328 13-2 
210 8-5 
579 27-3 
1 — 
1 _ 
1 — 
8 0-32 
9 0-36 
2 _ 
1 — 
