58 



Observations on Filari^, by Drs. Patrick Manson, John 

 r. somerville, joseph bancroft, j. f. da silva lima, 

 J. L. Paterson, Pedro S. de Magalhaes, and J. 

 Mortimer-Granville. 



Communicated, with an Introduction, by the President. 



{Read February 27, 1880.) 



Introduction. 



I almost owe an apology, not only to the Club but also to the 

 medical profession, for not earlier communicating the new and 

 remarkable facts which I have the honour to bring under your 

 notice this evening. I must explain that during my autumn holi- 

 day so large an amount of correspondence had accumulated that I 

 have been unable to overtake the duty of replying to letters, of 

 reading lengthy manuscripts, and of reporting on the various speci- 

 mens of parasites that were sent during my absence. 



Such rapid progress is being made by additions to our knowledge of 

 the habits, developments, and disorders produced by the Filarice and 

 other parasitic nematodes, that in order to render Dr. Manson's 

 researches generally intelligible it is necessary that I should state, 

 in as few words as possible, the position at which we had arrived 

 prior to the receipt of the particulars which the missionary 

 physician now supplies. 



The facts of filarial discovery in man originated and appeared in 

 the following order. In its embryonal state, what is now called 

 Filaria s'lnguinis hominis was first discovered by Dr. Wucherer on 

 the 4th of August, 1866. He gave no name to the parasite. Two 

 years later the same or similar larvse were found by Dr. Salisbury 

 in the urine,* in a case of chyluria (1868). He thought they 

 were a kind of Trichince {T. cystica). On tlie 22nd July, 1870, I 

 discovered great numbers of the nematode hirvse in the excretions 



* Dr. Salisbury's figures are probably inaccurate as to size. Basing his 

 views on the supposition that Salisbury's figures are correct, Dr. Lewis 

 rejects the notion of the identity of the urinary worms found by Salis- 

 bury and myself. 



