THE NEMATOID H^MaTOZOA OF MAN. 245 



The Nematoid H^matozoa ©/"Man.^ By Timothy Richards 

 Lewis, M.B., Surgeon, Army Medical Department \ Fellow 

 of the Calcutta University. With Plate XII. 



The literature of this subject dates from the period of the 

 publication in 1872 of a paper submitted by myself to the 

 Government, entitled ' On a Hcematozoon in Human Blood.'" 

 Towards the beginning of July of that year, I found nine minute 

 nematoid worms in a state of great activity on a slide containing 

 a drop of blood from the finger of a Hindoo. They were about 

 ■jp'o" in length, and -3^l_." in width, or slightly less than the average 

 diameter of a human red blood-corpuscle ("3 mm. x '007 mm.). 



Unfortunately, after the observation had been made the man 

 could not be found so as to be questioned as to his past history, 

 so that the pathological conditions which might have been 

 associated with this, the first recorded instance of the existence of 

 nematoid haematozoa in man, must continue in obscurity. 



This observation was, however, followed by several others which 

 have gone to show that the presence of this particular helminth 

 in the blood is very generally associated with Chyluria and with 

 an allied affection known as Lymph-scrotum or nsevoid 

 elephantiasis. The extent of this connection may, in some degree, 

 be inferred from the circumstance that whereas filariae may occa- 

 sionally be observed in the blood of persons apparently free from 

 disease of any kind, they are, so far as my personal experience 

 goes, invariably present when either of these diseases exist. It 

 must be recollected, however, that the search for them sometimes 

 involves very considerable labour. 



These parasites, or parasites very closely allied, have now been 

 found in human blood in many parts of the world. Dr. Prospero 

 Sonsino,^ in January, 1874 (having no knowledge of previous 

 observations of a like character) , found them in the person of a 

 Jew lad at Cairo. They have been found in Cliina by Dr. Patrick 



' This article forms a portion of a paper entitled " The Microscopic 

 Organisms found in the Blood of Man and Animals," which is shortly to 

 appear as an Appendix to ' The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Sanitary 

 Commissioner with the Government of India.' — Ed. 



- 'Eiglith Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the 

 Government of India,' 1872. Also * Indian Annals of Medical Science,' 

 vol. xvi. 



^ ' Richerche intorno alia Bilharzia hsematobia in relazione coUa ema- 

 turia endemica dell'Egitto e nota intoruo ad un neniatoideo trovato nel 

 sangue umano,' Naples, 1874. 



