5o8 A HcBmatozoon in Human Blood. [part hi. 



smell of urine. This condition came on suddenly about two months previous to his 

 admission into the Greneral Hospital. 



He dates his illness, however, as having commenced about a year before, for his 

 sight then became affected, and there was " inflammation " of both eyes, together 

 with a copious discharge of fluid from them. These symptoms have persisted, although 

 he thinks that they have somewhat subsided since the change occurred in his urine. 

 He has well-marked "granular lids," the mucous membrane of both the upper and 

 lower lids are red and swollen, and the sclerotic conjunctiva injected, the vessels 

 being large and tortuous ; there is also considerable opacity of the cornea. He presents 

 a somewhat emaciated appearance, although his appetite had always continued good, 

 and certainly since his admission into hospital the man has gladly availed himself 

 of the most liberal scale of diet allowed. 



This is not surprising when the amount of fibro-albuminous matter, which is 

 constantly being drained from his system, as evidenced by the state of the urinary 

 secretion, is taken into consideration, and when to this is added the fact that no 

 matter at what portion of his body the circulation is tapped with the point of a needle, 

 numerous active, well-developed Hsematozoa are invariably obtained : on one occasion 

 I obtained as many as twelve of these creatures on a single slide. As the drop of 

 blood from which this slide had been prepared sufficed for the preparation of two or 

 three other slides (which, however, between them did not contain more than half-a- 

 dozen Filarise), the number infesting his whole body may be imagined. 



A rough calculation may very readily be made ; the weight of the man is lOOlbs. ; 

 if the amount of blood be taken as being on the average "not less than one-tenth 

 of the weight of the body" (Huxley), and it is assumed that each drop or grain 

 rather contains, say, two Hsematozoa, it would be but a reasonable estimate to set 

 down the number as 140,000 ! It must, however, be borne in mind that the Hsematozoa 

 may be more or less localised to the capillaries and smaller vessels, which would 

 materially modify this estimate, still 1 know of no fact which warrants any such 

 assumption. 



- The urine also contained numerous Filariae, but they were by no means so plentiful 

 in this fluid as the condition of the blood might have led one to expect. I have seen 

 them far more plentiful in the urinary secretion of a person whose blood did not appear 

 to be infected to anything like the extent to which this man's had been. 



On several occasions I attempted, but in vain, to detect the Filarise in the copious 

 slightly milky secretion constantly welling out of the corner of his eyes, and which 

 in a slight degree appeared to curdle. I feel convinced, however, that could a sufficient 

 quantity of this secretion be accumulated, they would be discovered.* Microscopically 



* Since this portion was in type the inference above made has proved to have been correct, as I have 

 obtained a specimen of the Filariae in the midst of a shred of flocculent matter, which had been transferred fi'om 

 the inner surface of one of the lower eye-lids on to a glass slide, for examination. 



Its breadth was 7^15 of an inch, and its length ^k^'i t^^ relative proportion between the latter and the 

 former being, therefore, as 1 to 52. 



