312 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



There were usual!}' three or four. but sometimes as many as t\\enty- 

 five embryos in a filariated mosquito, whereas he did not find any 

 embryos in his " control " insects. Since the larvae died after three 

 or four hours' immersion in water, he concluded that water could 

 not be the medium by which the filariae reached man after leaving 

 the mosquito. He suggested that the latter would need to be 

 swallowed (as does happen accidentally sometimes) by man for 

 infection to occur. In an addendum (p. 62) he mentions that he 

 also thinks that young filarite may gain entrance to human beings 

 when the mosquitoes bearing them are in the act of drawing blood, 

 the warmth of which may stimulate the embryos to pierce the 

 insect's oesophagus and to pass down the proboscis into the human 

 skin. We know now that this latter suggestion regarding direct 

 transmission from the mosquito is the correct one. Culex noto- 

 scriptiis Skuse and C. annuliyostris Skuse are given as additional 

 hosts (p. 61). He thought it not unreasonable to suppose that 

 since the larvae were killed by water they would be probably 

 killed by the human digestive juices. 



In 1903 Dr. Flynn, of Ipswich, Queensland (A.M.G., 1903, 

 p. 248), stated that he had had about 60 cases in the last five years. 

 He suggested that the disease had been introduced from China 

 or the Pacific Islands, and referred to the various clinical signs 

 which his series of cases exhibited, such as elephantiasis, chyluria^ 

 lymphscrotum, chylous hydroceles, orchitis, etc. He referred to 

 the typical pyrexial attacks in the elephantiasis cases. He 

 mentioned the occurrence in chylous cases of rigors heralding the 

 outbreak. In chyloceles he found the embryos present in numbers. 

 He mentioned that an increase occurred in leucocytes in one of 

 his patients at the approach of an attack of pyrexia. 



In the same month Dr. T. L. Bancroft (A.M.G., 1903, p. 251) 

 published a, paper entitled "Notes on Filaria and Mosquitoes." 

 Cosh and Sawkins (A.M.G., 1903, p. 214) both refer to the disease. 

 Dr. Macdonald (A.M.G., 1905, p. 334) showed illustrations of a 

 case of filai^ial elephantiasis of the scalp. O'Brien (A.M.G., 1908, 

 p. 123) mentioned that filariasis existed sporadically in Northern 

 Queensland. 



In a paper on " The Manifestations of Filariasis as it appears 

 in Queensland," Dr. E. S. Jackson (A.M.G., 1908, p. 344) was of 

 opinion that the complaint was greatly on the increase in Brisbane. 

 He stated that the disease had not been observed yet in the Tweed 

 River district of New South Wales, which forms part of the 

 boundary between Queensland and New South Wales. He had 

 found it more commonly in the male sex and chiefly in the nati^•e- 

 born population, or those who had come to Queensland in early 

 childhood. The poorer classes were more subject to it. He also 

 referred to the various lesions produced by the disease. In the 

 discussion (p. 370) on this paper Dr. Maclean referred to the fact 

 that he had examined the blood of all the patients of three wards 

 in the hospital and had found filaria in from 15 to 18 per cent, of 



