FLAGELLATED ORGANISMS IN THE BLOOD OF ANIMALS. 359 



parents and embryos, and suggested that it might be called 

 Filaria Evansi. I hope, however, to describe it at greater 

 length in the next number of this Journal. 



With the view of ascertaining whether these flagellated organ- 

 isms could be transferred toother animals, Dr. Evans had injected 

 some blood from a horse, in which these organisms abounded, 

 into the subcutaneous tissue of a dog and of a bitch, and on exa- 

 mining their blood four or five days afterwards precisely similar 

 organisms were found in the blood of the bitch, but not in that 

 of the dog. This bitch had a suckling puppy about a couple 

 of months old, and its blood also contained these organisms, 

 although it had not been intentionally inoculated ; though as 

 regards the possibility of the puppy having likewise been inocu- 

 lated from the horse it is to be mentioned that a little of the 

 blood was given to the bitch to eat, and it is quite possible that 

 the puppy likewise consumed some of this. Unfortunately, the 

 blood of these animals had not been examined as a preliminary 

 procedure, so that it cannot be definitely declared that the 

 organisms had been derived from the blood of the horse. It 

 is just possible that they may have existed in their blood 

 previously, and, in this connection, it is to be borne in mind 

 that as regards rats attention was drawn in my previous article 

 to the circumstance that the blood of those caught in a particular 

 room would be affected, " whereas the blood of rats in another 

 part of the building would not contain them. The servants 

 had ultimately come to recognise this, as, whenever they learnt 

 that a particular rat's blood contained the desired organisms, 

 they diligently endeavoured to secure the rest of the family," 

 so that the possibility is not absolutely excluded that the finding 

 of these parasites in the blood of the puppy and of its mother 

 may have been a coincidence and not the direct result of the 

 experiment; nor is it known to what extent the blood of 

 horses and camels or other animals in this part of India may 

 harbour these organisms or may have harboured them at that 

 time. 



These flagellated blood-parasites are not, however, limited to 

 India, for in 1881 Wittich described similar organisms in the 



