OBSERVATIONS ON FlLAllI.S. 



71 



''If you think these facts of sufficient importance to make 

 public, I would be much obliged by your doing so in any way you 

 think best. They have not left my note-book before ; I am 

 gradually accumulating evidence to prove, I hope, to the satisfaction 

 of such cautious sceptics as [the late] Dr. Tilbury Fox and others, 

 tliat elejDhantiasis is a parasitic disease. I have got some strange 

 results from tapping enlarged groin glands with the subcutaneous 

 syringe, but until the chain is completed, either by myself or others, 

 I will keep silent on this point. 



" It seems to me that Lewis by his great discovery has opened a 

 new field in tropical pathology. The interest and importance of F. 

 Bancrofti and F. S. H. is by no means exhausted yet. I hear 

 Lewis is in England now, but when he retuns to India I hope he 

 will take up the subject again. Men like myself in general practice 

 are but poor and very slow investigators, crippled as we are with the 

 necessity of making our daily bread. 



'' Pardon this long and rambling letter, and believe me, 

 " Yours very faithfully, 



"Patrick Manson." 



'' I hope you will find embryos in the mosquitos. I sampled 

 them before placing them in the glycerine ; but their structure is so 

 delicate, and they are so minute, that they may be difficult to find, 

 shrivelled up by the glycerine. I would recommend you to soak the 

 insect about to be examined for a few minutes in water." 



Letter by Dr. Somerville. 



" Fuchow (China), 9th June, 1879. 



" Dear Sir, — Knowing the interest you take in these subjects, 

 fas stated by you in the ' Lancet ' of 5th April last), and as a small 

 contribution to the literature of Filarice, I venture to send the follow- 

 ing notes on the filaria disease in the dog. The paper which I send 

 to you by present mail was published early in 1874 in the Customs 

 * China Medical Reports,' and it was the first, I believe (of late 

 years, at least), to call attention to the subject in China. 



" Since that time I have had many cases of the canine filaria, and 

 several dissections, without, however, finding anything further that 

 is new. So common is the disease here, that one can hardly cut up 

 a native dog, or a foreign dog that has been any length of time in 

 the country, without finding the Filaria immitis, in greater or lesser 

 abundance, in the vessels or right ventricle. I have at present under 



