158 RESEARCHES IN HELMINTHOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. 



1878, he came to me with a round, vivid-red worm, twenty-six 

 inches in length (the specimen you now possess) , and very active in 

 its movements, instantly coiling up like a watch-spring on being 

 touched. Having no work on helminthology for reference, the only 

 description I found which appeared to answer to the worm was that 

 of Sf)-o?ii>y/HS i^iiias, in Niemeyer, vol. ii, p. 47. The patient is an 

 illiterate man, with no motive for deception. He informed me that 

 he discovered the worm protruding from his penis and drew it out 

 without pain or difficulty. He was in much agitation and alarm 

 about the occurrence, fearing, as he said, that ' ' there might be more 

 behind that one." For a few days previous to its passage his urine 

 was of a milky hue and some time subsequently of a }ellow cast and 

 slightly tinged with blood and mingled with mucus. The man is 

 truthful, and no doubt exists in my mind or in the minds of his 

 neighbors as to the correctness of his statements. I regret exceed- 

 ingly that I did not appreciate the scientific interest of the subject, 

 and send you the specimen in a fresh state, but the busy routine of 

 a country practitioner's life leaves no time for the study of other 

 than subjects of practical value in one's ever3'-day experience." 



The worm preserved in alcohol is much coiled, of a clay color, 

 and opaque or only feebly translucent, but more so at the head end. 

 If it is really a human parasite it appears to differ from all those 

 heretofore described, and also seems different from other known 

 parasites. It certainly is neither Eiistrongylus g(g^i nor is it the 

 Guinea-worm, Filaria nied'uwiisis, though nearly related to this. 

 Its characters are as follows : Body long, restiforni, nearly uni- 

 formly cylindrical, smooth, shining, elastic, tough, without evident 

 annulation other than transverse wrinkling, with the anterior ex- 

 tremity evenly tapering in the continuous head, the end of which 

 is rounded and smooth or without appendages of any kind ; the 

 posterior extremity not tapering, with the caudal end incurved, 

 bluntly rounded, without appendages and imperforate or without 

 evident anal or genital aperture. Mouth a terminal pore without 

 lips, papillae, or armature of any kind. Pharynx cylindrical and 

 opening into a straight cylindrical intestine, apparently ending in a 

 blind pouch. Generative organs unobserv^ed. Length of worm 26 

 inches ; greatest thickness 1.5 mm. Width of head just behind the 

 rounded extremity 0.375 mm, ; opposite the commencement of the 

 intestine 0.625 nun. ; at the middle 1.5 mm. ; at the incurved caudal 

 extremity 1.5 nun. Length of oesophagus 1.125. 



The worm, of exceedingly simple character, is clearly neither a 

 (iordius nor a Mrnnis, and though apparently more nearh' allied to 



