THE HELMINTH PARASITES OF MAN. 309 



L. Bancroft (Brit. Med. Jour., Oct., 1908, p: 1354) from Queens- 

 land, Salter (A.M.G., 1909, p. 355) mentioning the fact in his paper 

 on Ankylostoma {vide supra). 



Filaria. — Belonging to the Filariidae are a number of human 

 parasites, one of which F. hancrofti Cobbold is frequently met with. 

 Certain others have been reported, but in these cases infection had 

 taken place beyond Australia. 



8. Filaria bancrofti Cobbold. — This interesting and important 

 helminth is very frequently called F. {Microfilaria) noctnrna Manson 

 and F. sanguinis hominis Lewis. It has a very wide geographical 

 range, but it is only its Australian distribution which concerns us 

 here. An account of the earlier work and workers maybe found in 

 Cobbold's " Parasites, A treatise on the Entozoa of Man and 

 Animals," 1879, p. 186, sqq., and p. 487. The earliest reference 

 to the presence of these microfilariae in Australia was in Cobbold's 

 papers published in 1876 in the Brit. Med. Jour, of June, and the 

 Veterinarian of July of that year. In these he confirmed Dr. J. 

 Bancroft's finding of the embryos in specimens of blood from a case 

 of chyluria in Queensland, which the latter had forwarded to him. 

 Cobbold then questions Bancroft's discovery of the adult filaria in 

 lymphatic abscesses and in hydroceles in December, 1876, publish- 

 ing, (p. 186-7), a letter written from Brisbane in April, 1877, by the 

 latter informing Cobbold of his find. In the Lancet (July, 1877, 

 p. 70) the worm was named F. bancrofti, and further particulars 

 were given on p. 495. In 1878 Bancroft recorded in the Trans. 

 Pathol. Soc. London, XXIX., p. 407, a number of cases of filariasis. 

 Then followed other papers by Cobbold, Manson and others in the 

 Lancet and Jour. Linn. Soc. Lond., in which references were made to 

 Bancroft's work. Then Cobbold published a letter from Bancroft 

 in the Lancet of February, 1879. The latter published further 

 information m the A.M.G., 1882, p. 170, and the A.M. Jour. IV., 

 1882, p. 361, and the Trans. Intercol. Med. Congr. Austr., 1889, p. 49. 



Love (A.M.G., 1889, p. 135) mentioned that he found embryo 

 filariae in the blood of a girl suffering from chylous urine. In 1890 

 Turner (A.M.G., 1890, p. 65) dealt with two cases, the subjects being 

 Brisbane boys. In one instance there were well marked lymph 

 swellings in the groin, in the other chyluria was present. In 1892 

 Hogg (A.M.G., 1892, p. 416) met with a case of elephantiasis of both 

 legs, filariae being present in the blood. 



In the same year, in an article on Leprosy in Queensland, Dr. 

 Joseph Bancroft (A.M.G., 1892, p. 427) made some very interesting 

 remarks on the cases of filariasis that he had encountered. He took 

 charge of the Brisbane Hospital as Resident Surgeon in 1868, and 

 in reviewing the cases of leprosy he had met with during his sojourn 

 in Brisbane since that time he states that his attention was turned from 

 the fewcases of leprosy to cases in which large elastic tumours, mostly 

 of the groin, were found, and also cases of chyluria. Filaria were 



