Dysentery in the Philippines has been of such a character as to make the fol lowing facts worth noting: 1. Dysen tery, as it is seen here, is not a single, but consists of two distinct and sepa rate diseases. ?.. Acute dysentery does not produce abscess of the liver, nor does it produce ulceration of the colon. 3. Its fatal result is due to inflammation of the bowel, rapid elimination of the watery fluids of the body, toxremia and exhaustion, much after the manlier of cholera, though requiring four, six, and twelve days before its termination or crisis. 4. Amcebic dysentery differs from acute dysentery anatomically, pathologically, and etiologically. The only similarity between them is: the colon is the /ocus milforis resistontia: for both the bacillus of Shiga and the aniceba. Here all similarity ends. The bacillus of Shiga leaves no other lesion behind, save its effect upon the mucous membrane of the colon and enlargement of the adjacent glands. The amceba of dysentery invades the three layers of the colon, producing pinched-ont ulcers, or ulcers with undermined edges. lt also passes to the liver and produces characteristic lesions. There are two varieties of the amceba which differ in no respect save as to size. The pathog enic variety is somewhat larger than the non-pathogenic. These two varieties
of the amceba have been the cause of all the confusion cgarding the amccba an etiological factor in amcebic dysen tery. Finally, in regard to the dysen teries produced by the Shiga bacillus and amceba: (1) the duality of dysen tery is proved; (2) acute dysentery is the result of infection with the bacillus of Shiga; (3) it is infectious in the same way as the bacillus of typhoid fever is infectious; (4) aincebie dysentery is caused by an amceba; (5) there are both a pathogenic and a non-pathogenic amceba, which fact has produced much confusion regarding the ainceba as an etiological factor; (6) the lesions of amcebic dysentery differ from those pro duced by the bacillus of Shiga; (7) the therapeutic agents generally used for the treatment of acute dysenteiy are in no way curative; (8) magnesium sul phate should be included in this list; (9) quinine solution is a specific for the amccbic dysentery, but its employment in rapid, acute, ulcerating cases is fraught with danger, and from the na ture of the lesions it cannot be retained for a sufficient length of time to pro duce beneficial effects. M. II. Bowman (Phila. Med. Jour., from N. Y. Med. Jour., Aug. 17, 1901).