V 



144 LECTURES. 



e human body not unfrequently produces a 

 severe and even fatal hsematuria. I allude to the 

 Bilharzia hamatobia, genetically thus named by me 

 in honour of its original discoverer. This parasite is 

 so prevalent in Egypt that Dr. Bilharz of Cairo has 

 expressed his belief that nearly half the adult in- 

 habitants of that country are infested by it ; and 

 we now know from subsequent investigations that 

 this parasite is only rather less abundant in Natal, 

 cases having also occurred at the Cape, and in the 

 Mauritius. My acquaintance with this remarkable 

 entozoon dates as far back as the 4th of December, 

 185 7,, when I discovered a solitary specimen in 

 blood that had escaped from the portal vein of an 

 African monkey which had died at the Zoological 

 Society's Menagerie, Regent's Park. 



Since the original discoveries and researches 



made by Bilharz and Griesinger, several cases of 



this formidable helminthiasis have been brought to 



the notice of physicians in this country. Dr. 



John Harley recorded the first case recognised 



in this country in January, 1 864 ; and altogether I 



lave heard of certainly not less than six separate 



nstances where colonists (or other persons who 



lave previously visited the infected districts) have 



come to England with the disease upon them 



more or less strongly pronounced. For a general 



description of the worm, together with a condensed 



account of the symptoms and diseased appearances 



