OBSERVATIONS ON PILARIS. io 



" With regard to the association of jilaria sanguinis and elephanti- 

 asis and lymphangitis, in the way of cause and effect, I can only send 

 you the following facts, and they give negative results. 



*' On the 2nd March of last year, Dr. Asford, of this place, asked 

 me to be present at an operation for the removal of a large scrotal 

 tumour — the ordinary elephantiasis Arabum. On removal, I made 

 a careful examination of this tumour (which weighed 40 lbs.) in 

 several different parts, and of its juices, without finding any 

 F'ilarice. 



" There were also, at the same time, two men in hospital with 

 lymphangitis, and another with incipient elephantiasis of the scro- 

 tum, and in none were any Filarice to be found. This, of course, is 

 only negative evidence, but I think it is of value, pro tanto. 



" About the mosquito and elephantiasis, and its allied dis- 

 orders, it seems to us here that if the mosquito could propagate the 

 disease, we should all infallibly have big legs and scrotums, for we 

 never (except in the rare instance of the presence of an epidemic) 

 boil our drinking water, but only filter it. The Chinese, on the 

 other hand, never on any account use water, except when boiled in 

 the form of tea or soup. Indeed, they look with perfect horror on 

 foreigners drinking cold water. Yet these diseases occur in natives 

 only. I have never (during a residence of 16 years in the country) 

 heard of a case in a foreigner in China, and Sir Joseph Fayrer men- 

 tions that he has only seen two instances of elephantiasis in the 

 pure European in India. Surely climate and race are more likely to 

 have to do with the causation of these diseases than the mosquito ? 



" I noticed last summer a number of FilaricB wriggling about in 

 the glass cistern of my wet-bulb thermometer. They resembled the 

 Filarice we sometimes find swimming in the anterior chamber of the 

 eye of the horse in China (I operated on a pony for this some 

 years ago), except that they were larger, some of them being about 

 two inches long. Under the microscope they had the general ap- 

 pearance of the nematodes. They occurred at the same time in a 

 flower-pot in the garden, the bottom of which had got stopped up, 

 leaving a layer of water on the surface of the soil. They quite 

 disappeared as the cold weather set in. What were these worms ? 

 and is it possible their embryos could have been deposited by mos- 

 quitos ? They have not appeared this season as yet, but when they do 

 I mean to study them more minutely. 



'' I forgot to state, in these rather disjointed notes, a question 



