40 RESEARCHEvS IN HELMINTHOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. 



Ova oval, 1-2 14th inch long by i -545th inch broad. 



Habitation. — The female only I have found in numbers of one to 

 five within and adhering by the mouth to the parietes of the ven- 

 triculus of Passahis corniitus. 



[November, 1850. No. 60. See Bibliography.] 



DESCRIPTION OF THREE FILARI/E. 



1. Filaria Honiinis oris. — Body white, opaque, linear, thread- 

 like. Mouth round, simple. Posterior extremity obtuse, furnished 

 with a short, curved, epidermal booklet i -500th inch in length by 

 I -2000th inch in diameter at ba.se. 



Length 5 inches 7 lines ; greatest breadth i-66th inch ; breadth 

 at mouth i -250th inch, at posterior extremity i-8oth inch. 



Remarks. — The description is taken from a single specimen pre- 

 served in alcohol in the collection of the Academy, labelled, " Ob- 

 tained from the mouth of a child." 



Is it a young individual, or perhaps a male of the Filaria mcdi- 

 nensis or Guinea worm ? The latter, as it is well known, infests the 

 human body, often growing to an enormous length, several yards or 

 more, in the inter-tropics of Asia and Africa. It is frequently 

 brought in the body of negro slaves from Africa to America, where 

 no entozoon of the kind has ever been noticed to be parasitic in man 

 as an indigenous production. From some late observations on the 

 course of life of entozoa, helminthologists have been led to suspect 

 that most, and probably all, entozoa pass different stages of their 

 existence in different animals. If such be the fact, may the Filaria 

 medincnsis not owe its introduction into the human body from the 

 custom which prevails in those countries where the worm is found 

 of using insect food ? Insects are well known to be infested with 

 Filarise, probably more than an}^ other class of animals. In Egypt, 

 Arabia, &c., the locust is eaten, in Guinea, &c., the larger coleop- 

 tera, in the raw state, and in this condition Filariae may often be 

 swallowed, and reach a higher development of their existence in the 

 human body. 



2. Filaria Canis cordis. — Body white, opaque, linear, nearly uni- 

 form throughout, posteriorly subulate, pointed ; mouth simple, 

 round. 



Length 10 to 10^ inches, greatest breadth 2-5ths of a line, ante- 

 riorly I -5th of a line ; half an inch from posterior end, i-ioth of a 

 line. 



