OBSERVATIONS ON F1LARIJ5. 59 



of a little girl from Natal, who suffered from endemic haematuria, 

 the disorder being occasioned by the presence of the fluke which I 

 have called Bilharzia hantatohia. Tens of thousands of eggs of 

 this trematodt; passed from her daily, and as many as fifty of the 

 larval Filarice were seen on one occasion mixed with the ova of 

 Hilharzia. Like Wucherer, I gave the young nematode no new 

 name. Two years later Dr. Crevaux found similar larvse in a 

 h^mato-chylous patient at Guadaloupe. Nothing whatever was 

 known of the real significance of these finds until the year 1872, 

 when Dr. Lewis announced his discovery of minute FilaricB in the 

 blood. He named the larval worms Filaria sanguinis Jwminis. 

 Neither Wucherer nor myself thought it necessary to give any 

 particular name to larvae, which might be those of some adult 

 Filaria, Ascavis, Strongjjlus, or other nematode genus. Dr. Salis- 

 bury, indeed, had the temerity to refer the worms to the genus 

 Trichina; and Leuckart suggested that they might be young 

 Strongyles. In the matter of nomenclature I thought it better to 

 wait and see to what type the adult worm could properly be 

 referred ; for these larv£e certainly possessed no distinguishing 

 characters of any particular genus. 



Guided by certain indications which I pointed out to him, 

 Dr. Joseph Bancroft, as he has acknowledged, sought for and 

 discovered the adult worm on the 21st of December, 1876. He 

 wished me to publish his very short notice of the worm, because, as 

 he said, " I had set him on the track of the investigation." 

 Accordingly I announced the discovery in the Lancet for July, 

 1877, and afterwards more fully described the parasite in the same 

 journal, naming the worm Filaria Bancrofti. I also furnished 

 some anatomical details. Some months after Dr. Bancroft made his 

 discovery, Dr. Lewis also encountered the adult parasite ; and 

 losing no time in publishing his description, it appears that his 

 diagnosis of the characters of the entozoon was actually in print 

 before mine. Consequently, although Dr. Bancroft is the real dis« 

 coverer of the sexually mature parasite, I have, on this basis, been 

 called upon to give up the nomenclature that my description 

 supplied. I willingly do so ; with the distinct understanding, how- 

 ever, that such a step shall not deprive my Brisbane correspondent 

 of the honour of jDriority in this matter. Dr. Bancroft's discovery 

 dates seven months in advance of that of Dr. Lewis, whose verifica- 

 tion occurred on the 7th of August, 1877. Two months later, in 

 JouiiN. Q. M. C, No. 43. f 



