A CARNIVOROUS DIET IN THE TREATMENT OF FLAGELLATE DIARRHEA

My object in this communication is to call the attention of physicians to a method of treatment that has great promise for the control of intestinal disturbances due to the presence of protozoa. Considerable evidence has been obtained from a study of lower animals that a carnivorous diet is unfavorable for the existence within the intestine of flagellates belonging to the generaGiardia (Lamblia)andTrichomonas.¹The effects of such a diet on these and other intestinal protozoa in man can best be determined by physicians who have control of patients suffering from flagellate diarrhea or amebic dysentery. In the following paragraphs are presented briefly (1) the results of observations and experiments on animals, and (2) the results of treating human patients with a carnivorous diet.

Three rats that had been fed on a well balanced carnivorous diet throughout their lives (174 days) were found to be free from