358 TIMOTHY RICHARDS LEWIS. 



was visible. They were found not to be very sensitive to 

 reagents, as they continued, for example, to manifest lively 

 movements in a weak solution of bichloride of mercury for 

 eight hours, and an exposure of several minutes to chloroform 

 vapour did not seem to affect them. A weak solution of 

 ammonia did not affect them for some time, but a stronger 

 solution of potash affected them at once. When a drop of 

 blood containing them was placed on a slide arranged for the 

 application of electricity, it was found that an interrupted 

 current of such a strength as could not be comfortably borne 

 by an individual was tolerated by these beings for several 

 consecutive hours. 



They were found in two species of rats — Mus decumanus 

 and Musrufescens — and in 29 per cent, of the animals 

 examined. At that time I had not specially searched for these 

 organisms anywhere except in Calcutta, nor had I found them 

 in the blood of any animal except in that of the rat. I have 

 since found them in rats at Simla, in the Himalayas, at an 

 elevation of 7500 feet above sea-level, though as regards the 

 blood of mice and of musk rats I have searched for them in 

 vain both in Simla and Calcutta. 



That they are, however, to be found in the blood of other 

 animals has been demonstrated by Dr. Griffith Evans, the 

 present chief of the veterinary department in Madras, who, in 

 1880, whilst examining the blood of horses suffering from a 

 wasting form of disease termed " surra " in the Punjab, found 

 that it frequently swarmed with organisms of this character. 

 Dr. Evans further made the very interesting observation that 

 in the blood of a couple of camels, suffering apparently from a 

 disease allied to surra in the horse, flagellated organisms were 

 present in one, and nematoid embryos, closely resembling those 

 which I described some years ago as being found in the blood 

 of man, the Filaria sanguinis hominis,^ in the other. I 

 have elsewhere^ drawn attention to this parasite of the camel, 



1 'On a Hsematozoou in' Human Blood ; Its relation to Chyluria and other 

 Diseases.' Calcutta: Office of Superintendent of Government I'rinting, 1872 

 ^ ' Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' March, 1882. 



