534 Pathological Significance of Nematode Hcematozoa. [part hi. 



these entozoa in the blood of four persons, in the urine of about fifteen, and in the 

 profuse coagulable discharge from the lachrymal or Meibomian ducts of one ; all the 

 persons being affected with Chyluria except one, whose history was unknown and could 

 not be ascertained : That one of the cases had been under observation for more than 

 two years, during which period the young Filaria had undergone no appreciable change, 

 at least in so far as could be inferred from the fact that those which I had detected 

 in his urine in March 1870, differed in no way from those found in his blood as well 

 as in the urine in October 1872.* 



It was further stated in the report that one of the persons, a European woman, 

 suffering from Chyluria, in whose blood I had frequently detected Heematozoa, had died 

 at the Medical College Hospital, and that Dr. McConnell, the Professor of Pathology, 

 had made a very careful joost-rnortem examination, without the slightest evidence of 

 any parent to the parasites being obtained, although in the kidneys and supra-renal 

 capsules, which Dr. McConnell had kindly forwarded to me, numerous examples of the 

 young were found without difficulty. The following passage describes the state of these 

 organs : " No morbid changes could be detected as having taken place in either the 

 tubular or cortical tissue of the kidneys, but in every fragment, no matter from what 

 Dart of the kidneys removed, numerous microscopic Filarise were invariably obtained, if 

 the tissue had been properly teased, precisely analogous to those which had been 

 detected in the blood and in the urine during life. Teased fragments of the supra- 

 renal capsules yielded similar specimens. On slitting open any portion of the renal 

 artery from its entrance into the kidney as far inwards as I was able to follow its 

 ramifications and gently scraping its inner surface, numerous Hsematozoa could always 

 be obtained. The renal vein, when similarly examined, also yielded specimens of the 

 Filariae, but they did not seem to be so numerous in it." 



I From these observations it was inferred that the disease commonly known as 



; Chyluria, was generally, if not always, due, directly or indirectly, to the presence of this 



I entozoon in the system, and that the condition of the urine could only be looked upon 



'as one of the symptoms of the existence of this parasite, although it appeared to be 



-the most characteristic symptom with which we were acquainted ; and lastly, the opinion 



was expressed that some of the hitherto inexplicable phenomena by which certain 



tropical diseases are characterised might eventually be traced to the same or to an 



allied origin such diseases being implied as would naturally suggest themselves to 



professional readers wherein some impediment to the flow of the nutritive fluids of the 

 body appeared to have occurred, as is commonly believed to be the case in various 

 elephantoid conditions ; especially such of them as were characterised by the exudation 

 of a more or less chyle-like fluid from different parts of the body, and which have 



* It may here be stated that young Filarias remained in the vascular system of this person without 

 undergoing any appreciable morphological changes until April 1873. He was at this period admitted into 

 the Presidency General Hospital, under Dr. Coull Mackenzie, suflEering from diarrhoea, which, however, soon 



ed off He then became subject to frequently recurring attacks of fever, and died rather unexpectedly 

 h? a state of high delirium. Unfortunately no poH-mortem examination could be^held. 



