F. W. O’Connor 245 
4. The ambiguity in diagnosis, owing to the rapid degeneration of cell- 
constituents in a stale stool in a hot climate. 
5. The peculiar nature of the movements of the phagocytic amoebae 
taken from the fresh tissue. 
In another case (Captain D.), the onset of the attack was sudden, although 
there was a history of attacks of diarrhoea in the past. In this case there 
was also an extensive cell exudate, but a few amoebae containing red blood 
cells were found on the first examination. B. shiga was subsequently isolated 
from this stool, the cell exudate being probably due to the action of the 
bacillus. Had a diagnosis been made on macroscopical characters, or on the 
nature of the exudate alone, the treatment of an active amoebic condition 
would have been neglected. 
Text-fig. 1 
THE PARASITE. 
Entamoeba histolytica was discovered in 156 cases, or 7*5 per cent, of the 
white troops examined, but in only 50 cases was it found in the large free 
actively-motile phase, containing red blood cells, and associated with a clinical 
dysenteric condition. The parasite was found most frequently amongst the 
native Egyptian cases, and in these too the number of cases suffering from 
amoebic dysentery was also higher. Among the Indian native troops no cases 
of actual amoebic dysentery were found, but the number of these troops 
examined was very small. 
The Nucleus of the amoebae in fresh specimens conformed to the 
E. histolytica type, although in specimens not quite fresh and occasionally at 
the edges of the slides examined, of the fresher cases, the other abnormal 
