Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-10-04

With more than 100, 900 of our young
men stationed along our Mexican bor-
der, most of them destined within a few
months to be scattered among civilian
population throughout our country,
there should be a ~Quickened interest liz
amoebic dysentery.
The soldiers of the civil var remem-
Der ~dySentery as one of the worst men,
aces of the war. The soldiers OF the
Spanish war, while they did not suffer
from 1T as they did from typhoid. never
theless unit 1t as one OF their worst
enemies. Our troops in tho Philippines,
the canal zone have not been greatly
disturbed by it. Perhaps the Russo
Japanese conflict is tine only war In his
tory i'm which there was no great
trouble from d~ysentery. The experience
of the soldiers in that war and those OF
our soldiers on the frontiers at home
and abroad in recent years led us to
believe that we will not have much
~dysentery among u soldiers on the
Mexican border.
The amoeba was discovered in 1876.
II years after the civil war. Since
then the habits of this parasite have
been studied and every commanding Of
ficer knows just what to do to protect
his In spite of this. some of
the men Will get reckless and, diSobey-
ing instructions. will eat unwashed. IN
cooked fruit and vegetables OF drink
unapproved water. Some Of them will
contract amoebic ~dySentery and some
of those who do will return to their
homes with the still alive in
them.
Amoepac once they have infected the
intestine. hang on tenaciously. Any old
soldier will bear witness to that. Army
dlarrheas hung on for a generation
after the war had been officially de-
clared to be at an end. Any one of those
old cases of amoebic dysentery-and a
certain percentage of the chronic diar-
rheas which followed that war were
cases of amoebic Observation-Disclosures cam
able OF injecting people.
The amOeba of amoebic dySentery is
one OF the few animal diSeaSe-produc-
ing parasites. Most of the minute forms
or life which cause disease are veget-
ables. but the organisms which cause
malaria, ~dySentery, and "A few others
are animals. 1t lis about five or six times
as large as Il blood %corpuscle. In fact,
it is large enough to be seen with IL
moderately good microscope. 1t can be
seen with a microscope magnifying no
more than 300 times. Many high schools
possess microscopes of this power.
III the examiner will arrange to keep
his microscopic slide at blood tempera-
ture during the examination he can see
the alnoeba slowly crawling across the
fleld or feeding on bacteria. The organ
ism burrows deeply into the coats of the
large intestine, causing ulcers. Its food
is bacteria. Authorities call attention to
the fact that amoebac thrive in mouths
that are not kept clean. That when am
cebae are swallowed they go into a dor
mant state, and SO remain while passing
through the stomach and small intes-
tines. When they reach the large intes-
tines they find "a pabulum rich in bac-
terra, W~hereupon they come to life"
unfold, and proceed to feed.
In some cases amOebic dysentery
starts with bloody flux, high fever.
cramps in the legs. and bodily weak
ness. More often there is a history of
fever lasting two or three weeks and "a
mild diarrhea or flux. In some cases
there is a colicky pain. bu the bowels
the c~onstipated. There is a good deal of
mucus and jelly and Il varying amount
of blood in the stool. After the acute
stage has passed the soldier-or the
/ civilian, for that matter-settles down
into a condition of relapsing diarrhea.
For q while he will think he is all right.
then he will have u spell of diarrhea
with mucus, puss, and maybe blood in
| tbs stools, then convalescence. and then
ynothor spell.
Edwards says he has seen &c cases of
amoebic ~dysentery CLEARLY acquired in
Chicago" They got it in ali probability,
| SrOm people who had come to Chicago
carrying the amoebae, having occas-
ional relapses of ~dysentery. but prob
tbly not very sick and not thinking of
| themselves as ~spreaders of c%ontagion.
There is no symptom by which the
disease can be recognized with GER
:alnty. If for any reason. it is suspected,
the only way to know with certainty is
TO nave 3 microscopic examination of
some Of the jelly from a stool.
In the olden times physicians treated
| dys.ntery with fall doses Of powdered
ipecac. They gave a t~easpoonful or
somewhere near il. 1t seemed a fool
ish thing To do. fer no scientist had
!! found a reason for 1T. The old fellows
! gave 1t because they. knew tor some
/ ron or - hon. II lonofifnl Sn,nn-nf