49 



THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



Genus. Nephrophages. 

 Nephrophages sanguinarius, Miyake and Scriba, 1893. 



Males measure 0-117 mm. in length and 0*079 mm. in breadth; 

 females up to 0-360 mm. in length by O' 1 20 mm. in breadth. The head 

 is provided with two very large scissors-like jaws and two large round 

 eyes. The legs are composed of five segments and are all of equal 

 length ; the three anterior pairs of legs have pedunculated ambulacra, 

 the posterior ones terminate in a claw. The cuticle on the back is 

 thickened in three places, shield-like; the abdominal surface without 

 scutellum is longitudinally striped and is beset with chitinous hairs. 



Colour greenish to brownish- 



yellow. Eggs 

 0*040 mm. 



0-046 to 



FIG. 354. Nephrophages sanguinarius : male, 

 ventral surface. Enlarged. (After Miyake and 

 Scriba.) 



FlG. 355. Nephrophages sanguin- 

 arius : female, dorsal aspect. En- 

 larged. (After Miyake and Scriba.) 



The authors discovered these mites, but always dead, in the urine of a Japanese 

 suffering from fihrinuria complicated with chyluria and hsematuria. They surmised 

 that they were endoparasites, probably situated in the kidney ; but this view is not 

 convincing, though they also report that for a week, day after day, the mites were 

 found in the patient's urine, as well as in urine drawn off by means of a catheter, 

 and in the water used to wash out the bladder (one or two specimens and an egg). 

 The statement that these mites have large eyes makes the discovery suspicious, to 

 say the least. The significance of the discovery is not supported by the further 

 statement that Disse is supposed to have found an encapsuled mite closely related 

 to the Tyroglyphides on the wall of the vena cava. 



In the case of Marpmann, who found a dead Acarid in the urine of a man 

 suffering from chronic nephritis, and in whom later examinations proved negative, 



