140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [March, 



ment was ever made out. The tissues of the body cavity were also 

 teased and examined with negative results. 



Our work on the life history of this worm, then, has been disap- 

 pointing. Aside from negative findings, we have only established 

 the fact that the eggs may hatch in four days in tap water at room 

 temperature. 



Therapeusis. 



Theoretically, the prospect of a successful therapy is not bright. 

 The worms live in the soft, juicy wall of a canal between the crop and 

 gizzard. Sometimes they appear in the lumen of this canal, in which 

 case they are always surrounded by thick, tenacious mucus. If they 

 are pulled out of this with forceps and are laid on the mucus they at 

 once bore into it. It protects them from anj^ passing medicament, 

 which is apt to have only a transient effect while on its way from the 

 crop to gizzard. Those worms, which may be partly protruded into 

 the lumen from the wall of the canal, can retract and retreat, even 

 as far as the serosa, as shown in one of our museum specimens. 

 The smallest worms are found under the thick, chitinous lining 

 of the gizzard. We have used, therefore, drugs which act on the 

 worms in the lumen (thymol by mouth) and by way of the blood 

 (arsenic hypodermically). The arsenic used has been in the form 

 of Fowler's solution and atoxyl. We determined the minimum lethal 

 dose for j^igeons and administered a corresponding dose to the 

 verminous parrots.^ No practical results have come from our efforts 

 at therapy. Two interesting points, however, were secured: The 

 parrots and pigeons withstood thymol and arsenic in enormous 

 doses, compared weight for weight with man. The droppings of a 

 parrot very heavily infested averaged for five days 182,000 eggs 

 per diem. After a dose of thymol, on one occasion it passed 288,000 

 eggs in one single day. 

 Filaria fasciata n. sp. 



In the last three years we have found six examples of filariasis 

 in dead wild-cats. They may be found in the intermuscular fasciae of 

 any of the muscles of the body, but especially in those of the thigh 

 muscles. They number from two to forty. They are coiled in a 

 most intricate manner in the loose areolar tissue, but slip out rather 

 easily upon slight dissection and traction. The animal is emaciated. 

 Its blood swarms with embryos. 



^ Fortieth Amiiinl Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of 

 Philadelphia, 1912. 



