FILARIA MEDINENSIS. 389 



tonicum, to which vegetable purgatives are added, must prove 

 particularly efficacious. None of our colleagues working in the 

 tropics should forget that tropical chlorosis is the consequence of 

 the repeated, small intestinal bleedings, which scarcely betray 

 themselves externally, caused by intestinal worms, especially 

 Ancylostoma. 



IV. Filaria. 



With Dujardin the Filaria form the seventh genus of the 

 first class " Nematodes" or the first genus in the second section 

 of the Nematoda (Nematodes ore rolundo, triangulari, aut cum 

 aut sine papillis, sed sine lobis prominentibus ; mares spiculis 2 

 intequalibus) . Diesing refers to them as Genus XL of the 

 Order VI (Nematoidea) . This genus he has arranged in his 

 system in the Sub-order II, Proctucha ; Tribe III, Gamonema- 

 toidea ; Section I, Hypophalli. 



Diagnosis : Vermes albi, subfusci, aut rubri, corpore filiformi, 

 elastico, cylindrico, utplurimum longissimo, capite corpore continuo, 

 inermi aut spinulis rectis et cornels (dentibus, seu papillis promi- 

 nentibus Autorum] armato ; ore terminali non labiato, vel labiato y 

 rotundo, aut triangulari ; cesophago brevi, tubuloso, reciiore quam 

 intestinum ; ano terminali aut ante caudce apicem sito ; cute 

 IcEvi aut leviter oblique striatd. 



Mas ; caudd plerumque obtusa, interdum membranam accessoriam 

 alosam exhibente ; spiculis filiformibus in vagina tubulosa aut 

 ligulaformi, ex Dujardino inaqualibus, curvatis (?). Femina : 

 vagina antrorsum, proxime ad os sita, plerumque duplici (Filaria 

 rigida) aut multiplici (exc. quinqueloculari in Filaria labiata t 

 Nathusius) ; ovulis ellipticis aut globosis, laceribus. Nunc ovi- nunc 

 vivipar&. 



From the Gordii they are distinguished by their structure, mode 

 of life, and the nature of the youngest brood, and also, according 

 to Diesing, by the circumstance that they readily burst in water 

 like other Nematoda, which is not the case with the Gordii. 



1. Filaria medinensis. 

 PI. VIII, fig. 3; and PI. VII, fig. 9. 

 Mares ommino ignoti aut potius ab auctoribus neglecti et omissi, 



