Chronic-dyscntery anueb[e are not pathogenic to cats except when the in testinal mucous membrane has been in jured, as by a sublimate solution. The aim:Ann are not the cause of dysentery, but irritants which prevent the heal ing process in lcsions already existing. Kovae (Zeit. f. Heilkunde, B. 13, IL 6, '94).
Biological and clinical study of 235 eases of diarrhcea and dysentery. The aniceba found 66 times, most frequently in cases of typical diarrhcea, less often in simple catarrhal enteritis, and least frequently in sporadic dysentery, whether mild or fatal. The pathogenic impor tance of the aniceba denied, experiments upon cats having shown that the amoeba swallowed up numerous microbes, and that, where aumebte were numerous, but a small number of microbes were met with. Opinion expressed that the arnceba prevents the development of bacteria and permits healing of the lesions, thus explaining the vegetating form of the ulcerations observed by Councilman and Lafleur. The anueba prevents an acute evolution of the process, which, in turn, explains why ameebie dysentery is of a chronic type, as assumed by many authors. Cassagrande and Darbaglio llapisardi (Gaz. degli Osp., No. 66, '95).
Cats injected with portions of the stools showed only a mild follicular en teritis. Small portions of a dysenteric stool were mixed with peptone solution, and of two cats injected at the same time with the same stool, one remained liv ing, while the other died after six days. There were practically no differences in their bowel changes front those seen in uninjected cats. The fifth and sixth cats injected remained living; so that the results were not characteristic. In no case were ainceb obtained by culture, or seen upon microscopical examination. A streptococcus that was obtai»ed, and which grew in the form of a streptobacil lus, reacted to a dilution of 1 to 100 of blood-serum from the patients with dysentery, but it reacted in just as high a dilution with the blood from patients who had no dysentery. No description could cover, in a broad sense, thc forms that one is likely to meet in the contents of the intestines. Ascher (Dent. med. Woch., .Tan. 26, '99).
Conclusions concerning the parasitol ogy of tropical dysentery: 1. No bacte i ial species yet described /IS the cause of dysentery has an especial claim to be regarded as the chief micro-organisin eoncerned in the causation of the disease. 2. It is unlikely that any bacterial species that is constantly and normally present in the intestine or in the en virons of man, except where the disease prevails in an endemic form, can be re garded as the probable cause of epidemic dysentery. 3. The relations of sporadic
to epidemic dysentery are so remote that it is improbable that the two diseases are produced by the same organic cause. 4. The pathogenic action of amceba coli in many cases of tropical, and in certain examples of sporadic, dysentery has not been disproved by the discovery of anurbm in the normal intestine and in diseases other than dysentery. While anuebre are commonly present and are concerned in the production of the le sions in subacute and chronic dysentery, they have not, thus far, been shown to be equally connected with the acute dysenteries even in the tropics. In the former varieties bacterial association probably has much influence upon the pathogenic powers of the aincebre. Simon Flexner (Phila. Med. Jour., Sept. 1, 1900).
Six cases of the ordinary type of so called amoebic dysentery. in which the blood did not react with Shiga's bacillus. This tends to indicate distinctly that the disease is separate and distinct from the dysentery as met with in the tropics. William Osier (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., Jan. 5, 1901).
No bacterial species yet described as the cause of dysentery has an especial claim to be regarded as the chief micro organism concerned with the disease. It is unlikely that any bacterial species that is constantly and normally present in the intestine or in the environs of 111£1.11, except where the disease prevails in an endemic form, can be regarded as a probable cause of epidemic dysentery. The relations of sporadic to epidemic dysentery are. so remote that it is im probable that the two diseases are pro duced by the same organic cause. The pathogenic action of the amoeba coli in many cases of tropical and in certain examples of sporadic dysentery has not been disproved by the discovery of antreba in the normal intestine, and in diseases other than dysentery. While anueba are commonly present and are concerned in the production of the le sions of subacute and chronic dysentery. they have not thus far been shown to be equally connected with the acute dysenteries, even in the tropics. In the former varieties bacterial association probably has much influence on the pathogenic powers of the amcebx. Simon Flexner (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., Jan. 5, 1901).