Dysentery : with special reference to the disease as studied in Persia

Abstract

DEFINITION: In concluding these remarks upon the 'Definition' of Dysentery- I would re-iterate the fact that the term 'dysentery' is a purely symptomatic one, and must be taken in a clinical sense only, it is indelibly fixed in the mind of the non-medical world as the name,'par excellence' for all severe diarrhoeas -- more especially if accompanied by the classical symptoms, colic and tenesmus, with passage of blood and mucus, but to the medical man it must always appear almost as indefinite as 'Cancer' or ' 'Fever'.HISTORY: dysentery in all its different forms, may be but one disease, or different forms of the disease may be caused by separate specific organisms. Even though Lafleur may be mistaken in his belief that amoebic dysentery is caused by the amoeba coli, yet (as I have pointed out under Bacteriology) there is abundant evidence to justify the clinical distinction between the two forms into non-amoebic and amoebic.