ENTOZOA IN THE AREOLAE, TISSUE. 211 



In the countries where the Guinea-worm is 

 common, all of the inhabitants, without distinction 

 as to age or sex, or to the race or country to which 

 they may have originally belonged, are alike subject 

 to its attacks. Sometimes its appearance constitutes 

 an actual epidemic ; in a letter to Clot-Bey, Dr. Mar- 

 rudri states that in the Egyptian expedition into 

 Cordofan in 1820, one-fourth of the whole army was 

 suddenly affected by this entozoon, and that he 

 himself suffered from its attacks in no less than 

 twenty-eight different parts of his body successively ; 

 and in some districts one-half of the entire popula- 

 tion have been known to be affected by Guinea-worm. 

 Europeans sometimes suffer severely from this 

 scourge ; Sir James M'Gregor records that three 

 hundred soldiers out of one regiment, the 86th, 

 stationed at Bombay, were attacked by Guinea-worm 

 during the monsoon season ; this regiment was re- 

 placed by the 88th, and one hundred and sixty men 

 OLit of three hundred and sixty were subsequently 

 affected by the same entozoon. 



The number of filarise which exist in one person 

 is very variable, and may range from one or two up 

 to as many as thirty or forty. 



This parasite usually invades the lower extremities, 

 and is seldom found in the upper extremities, the 

 trunk of the body, or the face ; it is not met with in 

 the viscera of the chest or of the abdomen. An 

 analysis made by Sir James M'Gregor of 181 cases, 

 shows that the feet and legs were affected in 157 

 of the whole number. 



Generally speaking, the Guinea-worm is super- 

 ficially situated, and occupies the subcutaneous 



p 2 



