116 Mr. H. J. Carter on Microscopic Filaridse. 



their ova ; and when we consider the size of the spcrmatophorous 

 cells of Urolahes palustris, the number of ova which the female 

 must throw off during a season, the number of spermatozoa 

 required for their impregnation, and the small space afforded 

 by the oviducts for the temporary reception of the spermatozoa, 

 we must infer that, in their free state, there must be several 

 sexual connexions during the breeding-season : for the oviducts 

 of a Urolahes like U. palustris would not contain a sufficient 

 number of spermatozoa to impregnate a progeny equal to that 

 of Filaria Medinensis, which, as before stated, amounts to up- 

 wards of a million ; while, if there were a Urolahes possessing 

 oviducts of sufficient capacity for this, such a one could not, 

 when fully impregnated, pass in through the mouth of a sudo- 

 rific duct, and therefore must bore its way directly through the 

 skin. 



Lastly, we have to assume that, if the female does go in im- 

 pregnated, a complete change of her organs of generation must 

 take place, and the vaginal orifice become obliterated ; while, if 

 the progeny of Filaria Medinensis are derived from buds, nothing 

 of the kind need occur, and the worm might pass into the body 

 as Mei^mis albicans, &c., viz. in the embryo state. But such 

 assumptions unfortunately only lead us to the fact that we have 

 not sufficient data to come to a positive conclusion either one 

 way or the other, and that we probably shall remain ignorant 

 of the process of generation until we become acquainted with 

 the origin of Dracunculus, which therefore still remains a desi- 

 deratum. 



As regards the time which Filaria Medinensis takes to pass 

 from its embryo into its full-grown state, nothing is determined. 

 Cases of Dracunculus, or the appearance of the worm under pro- 

 trusion, take place throughout the year ; but their maximum is 

 towards the end of the dry weather and the beginning of the 

 '^rains,'^ viz. in the months of May and July, and their mini- 

 mum in January. The '^ register " of the Native General Hos- 

 pital in Bombay gives, for the seven years ending 1858, the 

 maximum (viz. sixty-three cases) in August, and the minimum 

 (viz. twelve cases) in February; but there were forty-four cases 

 in May. This, however, is not so useful here as the following 

 result from the town of Sattara, which is about 100 miles from 

 Bombay, because the latter is obtained from soldiers, who of 

 course go into hospital the moment they are sick, while those 

 who go into the Native General Hospital of Bombay, depending 

 for subsistence on their daily work, do not go into it except 

 when driven to it by the severity of the case. Thus, Dr. Murray 

 shows that, from regiments in the cantonment and town of 

 Sattara, for the six years ending 1847, Guinea- worm chiefly 



