NEMATODA 199 



In a clinical lecture published October 12th, 1878, Dr 

 Tilbury Fox seeks to diminish the value of these discoveries, 

 characterising helminthological investigators as merely " recent 

 writers/' Dr Fox denies that Filariae are a cause of true 

 elephantiasis, but admits the occurrence of ff elephantoid in- 

 flammation and inflammations due to Filariae." Dr Fox's state- 

 ment that " Filariae have not been found in uncomplicated 

 elephantiasis, that is, in disease without chylous exudation," 

 seems to me to be directly at variance with Hanson's recorded 

 experiences. I hold that Manson has confirmed the truth of 

 Lewis's views, and that he has thoroughly proved that (to use 

 his own words) " varicose groin glands, lymph scrotum, 

 elephantiasis, and chyluria are pathologically the same disease." 

 In the first instance I was myself led to conclude that some of 

 the forms of elephantiasis might be due to other causes than 

 obstruction of the lymphatics caused by the presence of Filariae ; 

 but the explanations of Lewis, of Bancroft, and of Manson 

 more especially, have almost entirely removed this doubt. 

 Those who seek to explain away the connection between 

 genuine elephantiasis and Filariae will do well to study Hanson's 

 last important memoir. He shows that " elephantiasis and 

 allied diseases are much more frequently associated with the 

 parasite than are other morbid conditions." This fact is 

 brought out very clearly in his table of 670 cases, from which 

 it appears that 58 per cent, of cases of Filaria are associated 

 with elephantoid disease. 



When this opposition to Hanson's views is likely to cease 

 (on the part of those who do not happen to have been in any 

 way instrumental to the discoveries in question) it is not easy 

 to say. In a brief communication which appeared in the last 

 number of the 'Hedical Times and Gazette' for 1878, Dr 

 Hanson successfully combats the doubts that have been enter- 

 tained respecting the role of the mosquito. Because Lewis 

 found that canine haematozoa were digested, and thus perished 

 in the stomach of mosquitoes, it had been argued that human 

 haamatozoa must necessarily undergo similar processes, and 

 consequently die. Those who oppose the views of helmintholo- 

 gists in respect of the intermediary host-function of insects on 

 such grounds can have very little general, and still less special 

 knowledge of the phenomena of parasitism. It is the old 

 story. When any new discovery is made, it must always pass 

 through the ordeals of denial and doubt before it can be gene- 



