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‘Entamoeba histolytica’ is a complex of two species
348 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE (1992) 86, CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence ‘Entamoeba histolytica’ is a complex of two species Brumpt (1925: Bulletin de l’ilcadimie de Mfdecine, 94, 942-952) first suggested that Entamoeba histolytica (Schaudinn, 1903: Arbeiten aus dem kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte, 19, 547-561) was a complex of 2 species--E. dysentetiae causing symptomatic disease and E. dispar, found in asymptomatic infections. Since then several authors havd argued for and against this proposal, until Sargeaunt et al. (1978: Transactions. 72. 519-521) reporied differences‘in the electrophor&ic mobility of certain enzymes of cultivated isolates. Subsequently, they and others demonstrated in many studies that E. histolytica isolated from liver abscessesand/or casesof amoebic dysentery, when haematophagous trophozoites were present in the faeces, had consistent and reproducible patterns of enzyme mobilities (zymodemes) which differed entirely from those of amoebae isolated from asymptomatic hosts (Sargeaunt et al., 1982: Lancet, i, 13861388; 1984: Transactions. 78.96101). In 1979,‘it was first proposed
genomic DNA detected by means of restriction enzyme fragment analysis of a single gene. Petri et al. (1990: Infection and Immunity, 58, 1802-1806) distinguished the 2 groups by means of monoclonal antibodies to the galactose-specific adherencelectin, whilst Edman et al. (1990: Journal of Experimental Medicine, 172, 879-888) characterized a different immunodominant variable surface antigen in each of the 2 groups of isolates. Que & Reed (1991: Nucleic Acids Research, 19, 5438), using nucleotide sequencing of a small subunit ribosomal DNA, also differentiated between the different groups of amoebae, whilst recently Clark & Diamond (1992: Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, in press) demonstrated that ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes of pathogenic and nonpathogenic E. histolytica are ‘quite distinct’. The evidence quoted here; together with many more nublished results. shows irrefutablv that ‘E. histolvtica’ is J a complex of 2 species. We should now therefore either use Brumpt’s classification (lot. cit.), or retain the name E. histoZytica (which has taxonomic priority) and firmly establishE. disbar as a senarate, snecies. . , non-nathoeenic . I
i
P.-G. Saigeaunt London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Keppel Street, London, WCIE 7Hp, UK 25 November1991
The works of Frideric Bolling-an early BritishDanish relationship Frideric Bolling, a 17th century Danish/Norwegian chaolain. left Eurone on board a Dutch shin bound for the-East Indies in 1669. He spent 2112vearsii Indonesia, and with an open mind hk observed the indigenous nonulations and their wav of life. In his work Oost-ln&size Reise-Bog (East Indian Travel Book), published in 1678, there is a drawing with the followmg accompanying text: ‘In Batavia, you can seea kind of people, the Panequais, originating from the Isle of St Thoma. Surprisingly, both men and women have one foot as thick as a piece of timber. Apparently, they are quite happy about having such a thick foot.’ This is probably the first Danish description of filarial elephantiasis. However, elephantiasis had been described much earlier, in India, by Pires (1512-1515) and by Linschoten (1614), from whom the illustrations in Bolling’s Travel Book were borrowed (see Grove, D.I., 1990: A History of Human Helminthology. Wallingford, UK: C.A.B. International). Bolling wrote his travel book in Danish, but he also mastered English. This can be seenfrom the fact that he published a Fuldkommen Engelske Grammatica (Complete English Grammar) and an Engelske Dictionarium (English/Danish Dictionary), both the first of their kind in Denmark, the year of their publication being 1678. Copies of Bolling’s grammar and dictionary can be found in the British Library in London, whereas the Travel Book is available onlv in Scandinavian and Dutch university libraries. _I Why did a Danish/Norwegian chaplain, living in Dutch East India, speak and write English? On his way home from the East Indies, his shin was cantured. and he was interned on St Helena. Later; he was-landed on the western coast of Ireland and found his way acrossIreland and England to Amsterdam. Here he discovered that the Dutch ship on which he had sailed had been lost to the English, including all his money and books. Surprisingly, he had no hard feelings, but only stated, ‘The only thing I got out of meeting the English was a good knowledgeof the English language’. Today, however, the Danes get more out of their British colleaguesin the field of tropical and travel medicine, including the enjoyable joint meetings between our Societies in Copenhagen in 1985 and Cambridge in July 1990, and help with the Scandinavian Diploma Courses in Tropical Medicine. We thank ProfessorGeorgeNelsonfor useful informationon the origin of Bolling’s Figure andfor otherinformationon early descriptionsof filariasis. Ib Bygbjerg Inge Kabell Hanne Lauridsen Department of Infectious Diseases Rigshospitalet, and Department of English, University of Copenhagen,
Copenhaaen, DenmarK 26 September 1991 rEEditor’s note-1 am sure that the British also receive a
great deal of value from their Danish colleagues, including this interesting letter.]
Correspondence ‘Entamoeba histolytica’ is a complex of two species Brumpt (1925: Bulletin de l’ilcadimie de Mfdecine, 94, 942-952) first suggested that Entamoeba histolytica (Schaudinn, 1903: Arbeiten aus dem kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte, 19, 547-561) was a complex of 2 species--E. dysentetiae causing symptomatic disease and E. dispar, found in asymptomatic infections. Since then several authors havd argued for and against this proposal, until Sargeaunt et al. (1978: Transactions. 72. 519-521) reporied differences‘in the electrophor&ic mobility of certain enzymes of cultivated isolates. Subsequently, they and others demonstrated in many studies that E. histolytica isolated from liver abscessesand/or casesof amoebic dysentery, when haematophagous trophozoites were present in the faeces, had consistent and reproducible patterns of enzyme mobilities (zymodemes) which differed entirely from those of amoebae isolated from asymptomatic hosts (Sargeaunt et al., 1982: Lancet, i, 13861388; 1984: Transactions. 78.96101). In 1979,‘it was first proposed
genomic DNA detected by means of restriction enzyme fragment analysis of a single gene. Petri et al. (1990: Infection and Immunity, 58, 1802-1806) distinguished the 2 groups by means of monoclonal antibodies to the galactose-specific adherencelectin, whilst Edman et al. (1990: Journal of Experimental Medicine, 172, 879-888) characterized a different immunodominant variable surface antigen in each of the 2 groups of isolates. Que & Reed (1991: Nucleic Acids Research, 19, 5438), using nucleotide sequencing of a small subunit ribosomal DNA, also differentiated between the different groups of amoebae, whilst recently Clark & Diamond (1992: Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, in press) demonstrated that ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes of pathogenic and nonpathogenic E. histolytica are ‘quite distinct’. The evidence quoted here; together with many more nublished results. shows irrefutablv that ‘E. histolvtica’ is J a complex of 2 species. We should now therefore either use Brumpt’s classification (lot. cit.), or retain the name E. histoZytica (which has taxonomic priority) and firmly establishE. disbar as a senarate, snecies. . , non-nathoeenic . I
i
P.-G. Saigeaunt London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Keppel Street, London, WCIE 7Hp, UK 25 November1991
The works of Frideric Bolling-an early BritishDanish relationship Frideric Bolling, a 17th century Danish/Norwegian chaolain. left Eurone on board a Dutch shin bound for the-East Indies in 1669. He spent 2112vearsii Indonesia, and with an open mind hk observed the indigenous nonulations and their wav of life. In his work Oost-ln&size Reise-Bog (East Indian Travel Book), published in 1678, there is a drawing with the followmg accompanying text: ‘In Batavia, you can seea kind of people, the Panequais, originating from the Isle of St Thoma. Surprisingly, both men and women have one foot as thick as a piece of timber. Apparently, they are quite happy about having such a thick foot.’ This is probably the first Danish description of filarial elephantiasis. However, elephantiasis had been described much earlier, in India, by Pires (1512-1515) and by Linschoten (1614), from whom the illustrations in Bolling’s Travel Book were borrowed (see Grove, D.I., 1990: A History of Human Helminthology. Wallingford, UK: C.A.B. International). Bolling wrote his travel book in Danish, but he also mastered English. This can be seenfrom the fact that he published a Fuldkommen Engelske Grammatica (Complete English Grammar) and an Engelske Dictionarium (English/Danish Dictionary), both the first of their kind in Denmark, the year of their publication being 1678. Copies of Bolling’s grammar and dictionary can be found in the British Library in London, whereas the Travel Book is available onlv in Scandinavian and Dutch university libraries. _I Why did a Danish/Norwegian chaplain, living in Dutch East India, speak and write English? On his way home from the East Indies, his shin was cantured. and he was interned on St Helena. Later; he was-landed on the western coast of Ireland and found his way acrossIreland and England to Amsterdam. Here he discovered that the Dutch ship on which he had sailed had been lost to the English, including all his money and books. Surprisingly, he had no hard feelings, but only stated, ‘The only thing I got out of meeting the English was a good knowledgeof the English language’. Today, however, the Danes get more out of their British colleaguesin the field of tropical and travel medicine, including the enjoyable joint meetings between our Societies in Copenhagen in 1985 and Cambridge in July 1990, and help with the Scandinavian Diploma Courses in Tropical Medicine. We thank ProfessorGeorgeNelsonfor useful informationon the origin of Bolling’s Figure andfor otherinformationon early descriptionsof filariasis. Ib Bygbjerg Inge Kabell Hanne Lauridsen Department of Infectious Diseases Rigshospitalet, and Department of English, University of Copenhagen,
Copenhaaen, DenmarK 26 September 1991 rEEditor’s note-1 am sure that the British also receive a
great deal of value from their Danish colleagues, including this interesting letter.]