PART III.] Summary of Observations and Inferences. 531 



consequences being observed ; but which may, on the contrary, give rise to serious 

 disease, and ultimately be the cause of death : 



(2) The phenomena which may be induced by the blood being thus affected 

 are probably due to the mechanical interruption offered (by the accidental aggregation 

 perhaps of the Haematozoa) to the flow of the nutritive fluids of the body in various 

 channels, giving rise to the obstruction of the current within them, or to rupture 

 of their extremely delicate walls, and thus causing the contents of the lacteals, 

 lymphatics, or capillaries to escape into the most convenient excretory channel. 

 Such escaped fluid (as has been demonstrated in the case of the urinary and 

 lachrymal or Meibomian secretions, and in fluid removed from an enlarged scrotum) 

 may be the means of carrying some of the Filarise with it out of the circulation. 

 These occurrences are liable to return after long intervals — so long, in fact, as the 

 P'ilarise continue to dwell in the blood : 



(3) As a rule, a Chylous condition of the urine is only one of the syTri'ptoms 

 of this state of the circulation, although it appears to be the most characteristic 

 symptom which we are at present aware of : 



(4) And, lastly, it appears probable that some of the hitherto inexplicable 

 phenomena by which certain tropical diseases are characterised, may eventually be / 

 traced to the same, or to an allied condition. 



The importance of a careful microscopical examination of the blood of persons 

 suffering from obscure diseases, in tropical countries especially, is therefore more 

 than ever evident, and opens up a new and most important field of inquiry — / 

 referring as it does to a hitherto unknown diseased condition. 



Calcutta, 

 January 1874. 



ADDENDA. 



A FEW days after the publication of the January number of the " Indian Annals," 

 another case was brought to my notice tending still further to throw light on the 

 etiology and pathology of the diseased conditions referred to at pages 525 — 527 ; 

 Chyluria, in this instance, being associated with Elephantiasis of the scrotum and of 

 the leg. 



The patient was a middle-aged native, suffering from a second attack of Chylous 

 urine, the attack having already lasted six weeks. The first attack came on suddenly 

 a year previously, and was of two months' duration. The scrotal enlargement com- 

 menced six or seven years ago, but it is only since about three months that he 

 has observed his leg increase in size — the enlargement being most marked on either 

 side of the left ankle. 



About a dozen specimens of blood were obtained from the tips of his fingers 

 and toes, each prick of the needle yielding several specimens of active Filarise. 



Two days afterwards another native presented himself likewise suffering from 



