138 V. MANSON ON MICIIO-FILARI JS, WITH 



" Amoy, 4t>i May, 1880. 

 *'T. Spencer Cobbold, Esq., F.R.S. 



" Dear Sir, — I hope you will excuse me troubling j^ou with 

 another letter so soon ; but it is only because I think you are in- 

 terested in the subject of worms even more than I am, that I 

 venture to tax your patience so frequently. 



" First, I am sorry to say that the paper I intend sending you has 

 not arrived yet.* I regret this the more as it would partly explain 

 what I write about now. Briefly — from observations in the day I 

 have some reason to think that the embryos of F. Bancrojtiy while 

 absent from the general circulation during the day, are resting in 

 pulmonary circulation. To test this idea, I have for a long time 

 been on the look-out for cases of haemoptysis, that I might obtain 

 lung blood at the proper time. Hitherto I have never met with a 

 blood-spitting filarious patient. But some time ago a Chinaman 

 consulted me about some eczematous patches on his face and legs. 

 While he was speaking to me I observed that his voice was very 

 rough, and that once or twice he hawked up sputum tinged apparently 

 with blood. I thought he had a chance of being filarious, and so 

 put a little of the sputum under the microscope. But instead of 

 finding it swarming with filarise, I found it plentifully besprinkled 

 with the ova of some other parasite. 



" Enquiring about his history, I learned that he was a secretary 

 in the salt mandarin's office in comfortable circumstances ; that he 

 was a native of Foochow, where he had resided till he was 21 years 

 of age. He is now 35. Eight of the intervening years he spent in 

 North Formosa, at a town called Tiek Tcham, and it was in this place, 

 a year after his arrival there, or about 13 years ago, that haemop- 

 tysis first began. The history of the hsemoptysis he describes as 

 follows — When 22 years of age it began. Every day he spat from 

 an ounce to half an ounce of blood for 19 days in succession. He 

 had very little cough. At first the expectoration was pure blood, 

 but after three or four days it became mixed with mucus. Hasmop- 

 tysis returned six months afterwards ; the blood was smaller in 

 quantity, and appeared in the sputum for three or four days only. 

 Since then he has spat blood for a few days at a time every two or 



* Since Dr. Hanson's paper was read, I have received the printed com- 

 munication referred to. It came to hand July 28, 1880, and is entitled 

 " Additional Notes on Filarioe sanguinis hominis and Filaria-Disease." 

 The paper is illustrated by four photographic plates of Elephantiasis 

 Arabum.— T. S. C. 



