NBMATODA 185 



obscure diseases, including temporary swellings in the face or 

 extremities. From certain appearances of intestinal ulceration 

 Lewis thought that the parasites might gain access to the 

 system by the alimentary canal, possibly from the tank-water 

 or the fish inhabiting it. He considered the state of the urine 

 to be due to the mechanical interruption offered to the flow of 

 the nutritive fluids of the body. The accidental aggregation of 

 the Hsematozoa might give rise to obstruction of the currents 

 within the various channels, or occasion rupture of their 

 extremely delicate walls, and thus cause the contents of the 

 lacteals, lymphatics, or capillaries, to escape into the most 

 conveniently placed excretory channel. 



Compressed into a small compass, I think the above is a 

 fair statement of the leading facts and phenomena discovered 

 by Lewis. The whole subject of haamatozoology immediately 

 received additional impulse, the consequences of which have not 

 yet terminated. In this country Welch was stimulated to 

 investigate the structure of Filaria immitis in the dog, whilst 

 others sought diligently for nematoid hgematozoa abroad. 



On the 20th of April, 1874, Dr Prospero Sonsino communi- 

 cated to the Neapolitan Royal Academy his memoir entitled 

 " Researches concerning Bilharzia hamatobia in relation to the 

 endemic hsematuria of Egypt, with a notice concerning a nema- 

 toid found in the human blood." In this brochure he made 

 known the fact of his having discovered microscopic Filarias in a 

 young Egyptian Jew, in the following words : " On the 1st of 

 February last, having well washed the finger of the boy, I 

 placed one drop of blood under the microscope, when with 

 astonishment I discovered a living organism of the form of a 

 nematode, resembling Anguillula, in the midst of the haematic 

 corpuscles. The worms glided amongst the globules, which were 

 tossed about by their lively movements, showing various appear- 

 ances according as they presented themselves either from the 

 sides, the edges, or the front of the disk" (''Ricerche/ &c., pp. 11, 

 12). Dr Sonsino took every precaution to prevent error, subse- 

 quently verifying his "" find " from the same patient. Dr Sonsino 

 directs attention to two of his own characteristic figures of the 

 worm, and subsequently states not only that he found examples 

 of the Filariae in the urine of this same youth, but also " in the 

 urine of another patient." The parasites from these two sources 

 being figured side by side, it was clear, from their resemblance, 

 that they referred to one and the same species of entozoon. Dr 



