F. W. O’Connor 
241 
Character of the Stools. 
A careful record was made of the appearance and consistency of eacli 
specimen examined and the results are shown in the appended tables. Free 
Protozoa were generally found in stools containing blood, mucus, etc., and 
in those of a liquid character, and cysts in the more solid faeces of a later stage. 
In semi-solid stools both free and encysted Protozoa were found, and these 
were the most satisfactory to examine. In cases passing hard formed stools 
I generally gave the patient half an ounce of magnesium sulphate 2-hourly, 
until the first soft motion was passed for examination, in preference to large 
single doses of this salt or other purges. 
Blood and Mucus Stools. 
This condition was found in association with bacillary or amoebic dysentery 
and in some of the native cases caused by Schistosoma mansoni or haematobium. 
By far the greater proportion of cases was bacillary in origin. 
In the Acute Bacillary cases in the earliest stages the dejecta consisted of 
almost pure blood, or more frequently of thin watery or slightly tenacious 
mucus brightly stained with blood. Sometimes the mucus was more viscid, 
streaked or tinged with blood. In other cases faecal material was stained with 
streaks of blood and approached to the amoebic type. Very occasionally a 
complete absence of blood on naked eye inspection and a preponderance of 
liquid mucus made one suspicious of cholera; but this appearance was more 
frequently observed in the few. cases of ptomaine or food poisoning which 
occurred from time to time. Stools continued in these conditions for from 
24 hours to a week and then, with decrease of the red corpuscles and increase 
of pus and epithelial elements resulting in a preponderance of mucus, merged 
into a liquid form of bacillary stool to be described under “Liquid Stools. 
In Amoebic Dysentery the classical type of stool, faecal in character with 
streaks and spots of blood-stained mucus, predominated, but in a few cases 
large infections of active phagocytic amoeba were found where the macro¬ 
scopic appearance suggested the bacillary disease. Bacteriological investiga¬ 
tion in these cases failed to reveal a bacillary cause, and rapid improvement 
followed treatment with emetine. In one case a “Rice Water” stool sent for 
examination for the cholera vibrio contained large numbers of free amoebae 
cytologically identical with Entamoeba histolytica but containing no red blood 
cells; the comma bacillus was not found, and the following day the patient- 
passed faeces containing many amoebae loaded with red cells, and the 
diagnosis of amoebic dysentery was confirmed. 
In the one case of simultaneous amoebic and bacillary dysentery the naked 
eye appearance suggested the latter disease. 
In dysenteric conditions due to Schistosoma the stool generally consisted 
of almost pure unaltered blood. Though this appearance was the most 
common one yet in other cases the character varied from the typical to any 
of those described for bacillary or amoebic dysentery. 
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