54 THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



Eye-Fly, a minute winged insect which appears in 

 spring-time in myriads over all India, and clusters in 

 doors on any hanging strip of cloth or bit of thread. 

 They irritate the eyelids, and are popularly surmised to 

 cause ophthalmia. They are easily destroyed by burning 

 a cone-shaped paper. See Pipsa. 



Filaria, a genus of the Helmintha, q.v. The species are 

 all baneful. Filaria medinensis or guinea-worm is the 

 dracunculus. Having gained an entrance into the human 

 body, it takes from two months to a year or more to 

 become developed. It can be withdrawn in a few 

 minutes from the more exposed parts of the body, by 

 cutting down on it and inserting a probe beneath. If it 

 be broken, inflammation and suppuration follow, of a 

 severe form. Filaria sanguinis hominis Dr. T. I*. 

 Lewis, M.B., Assistant Surgeon, Her Majesty's British 

 Forces, attached to the Sanitary Commission with the 

 Government of India, discovered this hsematozoon as- 

 inhabiting human blood of Europeans in India. (Report 

 1871, Sanitary Commission.} Filarise abound in the 

 soft parts of many birds. Dr. Spencer Cobbold, an able 

 writer on Entozoa, found the Filaria attenuata worm in 

 a kite. See Guinea-worm ; Helmintha. 



Fish. Sharks, although best known to landsmen as 

 giving cause for sorrow by their destruction of human 

 life, are not the only dangerous inhabitants of tropical 

 seas. Some fish are injurious when taken as food, and 

 produce symptoms resembling those of poisoning. The 

 deleterious effects which are produced by the tunny, 



