524 A HcBmatozoon in Human Blood. [part hi. 



of the urine, comes on very suddenly, not only on the first, but on succeeding 

 occasions also ; this peculiarity to my mind points to a local cause in the system, 

 rather than to a generally distributed functional disorder. 



Thirdly, there is a complete absence of casts of the tubules of the kidney in the 

 urine, notwithstanding the large amount of albuminoid elements present. 



And fourthly, it is frequently associated with more or less distinctly marked 

 symptoms of various other obscure diseases, such as partial deafness ; ^ diarrhoea, 

 often very persistent; chronic conjuctivitis, or some more deeply-seated defect in the 

 visual organs ; and sometimes temporary swellings of the face or extremities. 



These varied complications may, I believe, be very satisfactorily accounted for ' 

 now that it has been ascertained that the nutritive channels of the tissues, even to 

 their most minute ramifications, are inhabited by numberless living Haematozoa, 

 which, accidentally or otherwise, accumulating in any particular set of these channels, 

 may lead to local stoppages in the flow of the nutritive fluids and to rupture of the 

 extremely delicate walls of the capillaries, lacteals, or lymphatics. The extreme 

 activity of the Filarise, especially should a bundle of them accumulate in one particular 

 spot, would doubtless materially aid in giving rise to rupture ; for, as is well known, 

 the walls of these channels are extremely delicate, those of the lymphatic system 

 being especially so. The resulting phenomena, such as the escape of the nutritive 

 fluid and of the Filariae contained within the ruptured channel into the excretory 

 ducts belonging to the part, appears to me to be so simple a procedure that to 

 dil9,te on its mechanism would be quite superfluous. When the fissure becomes 

 plugged or healed these unusual symptoms naturally disappear. It would seem, 

 therefore, that the milky appearance of the urine is merely one of the symptoms 

 of the existence of this Filaria in the nutritive channels of the body. 



It must not, however, be inferred that I would ascribe all cases of Chyluria to this 

 cause, although my own experience of the disease would almost warrant such a 

 statement, seeing that out of the seven persons whose blood was infected with 

 Filariae, as referred to in these pages, six were known to suffer from Chyluria ; but 

 as the history of the seventh is quite unknown, it would be useless speculating on 

 the subject. On the other hand, on no occasion have I met with this parasite in 

 the urine except when associated with this complaint, and here I have distinct 

 evidence in more than twenty instances. 



Doubtless a combination of various other circumstances might produce similar 

 phenomena, just as various obstructing causes, such as the pressure of tumours, 

 diseased condition of the vessels, etc., may produce the exudation of milky 

 fluid on various part of the body, from the abdominal walls, the groin, the axilla, 

 the thigh, and other parts, such as are constantly being reported in medical journals. 

 Nevertheless, cases occurring in waxm countries, or in persons who had formerly 



