PART I.] Embryos of a Round Worm found in " Chylous Urines 19 



cells, some hyaline, some granular, some protruding a tongue-like prominence, and 

 others with the contained plasma puckered in various ways (Plate XII, Fig. xxxvii). 

 A few of the larger corpuscles were seen to shift themselves (like an amoeba) a distance 

 fully their own diameter, the shape altering at the same time. At first I doubted 

 that they really were blood-cells, as the extent of variation in size was considerable, as 

 shown by reference to the figure, which is carefully drawn to scale. The fluid very 

 quickly gelatinised in the test tube ; indeed it frequently does so in the patient's 

 bladder, giving rise to stoppages during micturition. I have not seen cholera discharges 

 spontaneously gelatinise, although such a condition is said to occur. A portion of 

 the coagulated mass (which when stirred closely resembled a lump of moist gluten) 

 was teased on a slide with needles and examined. It. consisted of fibrillse studded 

 with blood ; granular cells, scarcely differing from those seen in cholera discharge 

 flakes, except, perhaps, in being more universally granular. They seemed to present 

 more of the character of pus-cells. 



In the midst of this fibro-albuminous matter several embryos of a Round-worm 

 were discovered every time the urine was examined, one of w^hich is seen coiled up 

 in the drawing (Fig. xxxviii). A careful sketch of a larger one, after the addition 

 of acetic acid, is given at Fig. xxxix. In the course of a few minutes, when the 

 sketch was nearly completed, a caudal-bursa became visible under the influence of 

 the acid, and is delineated at No. 2. 



When first seen, I thought there were some detached filaments of a fungus, 

 judging from the hyaline, structureless appearance presented ; after a time, however, 

 a few of them were observed to move very slowly, when all doubt as to their nature 

 was at an end. It will not be surprising that the existence of these was not 

 suspected, when we consider that fully two hundred of the larger size figured could 

 pass abreast through a very small pinhole, an orifice not exceeding the fiftieth of 

 an inch in diameter, as may be verified by a simple calculation. 



Perhaps this fact may help to throw some light on a very obscure disease, of which 

 little is known beyond the symptoms, although frequently met with in some parts of the 

 world; and, indeed, may perhaps account for its localisation to such places as the west 

 coast of Africa, where I am told it is by no means a rare malady. 



As the mature worm still retains a hold on its victim, being perhaps safely 

 lodged in the kidney, and not having seen an embryo of this kind before, nor yet a 

 drawing, I must leave to a more experienced helminthologist to decide to what species 

 of nematode it belongs.* 



3. In examination of this class of corpuscle, namely, those intimately associated with 

 the well-known flakes in cholera dejections, it is of the greatest importance that the 

 evacuation should be a recent one, because its character may be entirely changed in the 



* While this report was passing through the press, the ^'■chylous " condition which this urine had presented 

 for more than two months gradually disappeared, and so did all traces of albumen, and of the embryo-worms. 



