398 SANITARY CONDITIONS 



the blood of a person who has Filarice in his circulation, the blood examined in 

 the stomach of the mosquito will show living Filarice. After a time as the blood 

 becomes concentrated in the stomach of the insect the embryo Filarice wriggle 

 out of the sheaths in which they were contained, and become much more 

 active, moving from place to place. Later on, these sheathless parasites dis- 

 appear from the blood in the stomach of the mosquito and are found in the 

 thoracic muscles of the insect. Here they undergo a metamorphosis in about 

 16 to 20 days, in which time they develop a mouth, a peculiar three-lobed tail, 

 and increase to about one-sixteenth of an inch in length. 



They now leave the thorax by the pro-thorax, and entering the head of 

 the mosquito, coil themselves up close to the base of the proboscis. Dr. Ban- 

 croft of Australia has shown that the Filarice find their way into the proboscis 

 and it is in this way, probably, that it eventually comes into the lymphatics of 

 the human being. 



The parasite may remain in the interior of the labium of the mosquito 

 according to Manson for sometime, awaiting an opportunity to enter the 

 host, but the exact nature of the process by which the Filarice emerge from 

 the proboscis of a mosquito, has not been determined. Introduced into the 

 human body it finds its way into the lymphatics and there attains its sexual 

 maturity. 



ELEPHANTIASIS. 



We found but one case of this interesting affection in the Bahamas, and 

 this was at Current Settlement, Eleuthera. The case was that of an old 

 colored woman beyond middle age with a well-marked but not excessive en- 

 largement of the left leg, especially from the knee down. This enlargement 

 was uniform and the skin of the leg was not especially indurated or thickened, 

 but she gave a history of attacks of inflammation of the skin of the leg at 

 different times in her life, accompanied by considerable pain and burning 

 sensation. From her history it was evident that this condition had been 

 present in some of the other members of her immediate family. The case was 

 a mild one. 



Whether this disease was due to filariasis or not, it would be difficult to 

 determine, not finding any such conditions in this settlement, but we presume 

 that it was of this nature. 



With this exception, no other cases of elephantiasis were noted among 

 these Islands, although, in past years, several cases have been admitted to the 

 hospital at Nassau. 



