NEMATODA 187 



have now obtained five specimens of the worm, which are waiting 

 to be forwarded by a trustworthy messenger. 



" I have on record about twenty cases of this parasitic 

 disease, and believe it will be the solution of chyluria, one form 

 of hgematuria, one form of spontaneous lymphatic abscess, a 

 peculiar soft varix of the groin, a hydrocele containing chylous 

 fluid, together with some forms of varicocele and orchitis. These 

 I have verified. In the colony there are no cases that I can 

 find of elephantine leg, scrotal elephantiasis, or lymph scrotum ; 

 but from the description of these diseases in the volume on skin 

 and other diseases of India by Fox, Farquhar, and Carter, and 

 from Wm. Roberts' article on the latter in his volume on 

 urinary diseases, I am of opinion that the parasitic nature of the 

 same will be established. 



" The worm is about the thickness of a human hair, and is 

 from three to four inches long. By two loops from the centre 

 of its body it emits the Filariae described by Carter in immense 

 numbers. 



" My first specimen I got on December 21st, 1876, in a 

 lymphatic abscess of the arm ; this was dead. Four others I 

 obtained alive from a hydrocele of the spermatic cord, having 

 caught them in the eye of a peculiar trochar I use for tapping. 

 These I kept alive for a day and separated them from each 

 other with great difficulty. The worm when immersed in pure 

 water stretches itself out and lies quite passive. In this condi- 

 tion it could be easily washed out of hydroceles through a 

 large-sized trochar from patients known to suffer from Filariae." 

 In July, 1877, I announced Bancroft's discovery in the 

 ( Lancet,' naming the parasite Filaria Bancrofti, and in the 

 following September I sent the editor an account of the 

 results of my study of the adult worms received from Brisbane 

 in the interval. These examinations supplied me with the 

 diagnosis already given (p. 181). 



On the 29th of September, 1877, Dr Lewis published a paper in 

 the ' Lancet,' wherein, after alluding to my previous announce- 

 ment respecting the discovery of Filaria Bancrofti, he describes 

 under the name of Filaria sanguinis hominis a mature worm, 

 which was evidently the same parasite. Not unnaturally Dr 

 Lewis put aside the nomenclature I had employed, on the ground 

 that the name originally given by himself to the embryonal 

 form ought to be retained, and that " a new name, if not 

 necessary on anatomical grounds, would only lead to confusion." 



