PART III.] Transference of Flagellated Organisms from a Horse to a Dog. 63 1 



application of electricity, it was found that an interrupted current of such a strength 

 as could not be comfortably borne by an individual was tolerated by these beings for 

 several consecutive hours. 



They were found in two species of rats — Mus decumanus and Mus rufescens — and 

 in 29 per cent, of the animals examined. At that time I had not specially searched 

 for these organisms anywhere except in Calcutta, nor had I found them in the blood 

 of any animal except in that of the rat. I have since found them in rats at Simla, 

 in the Himalayas, at an elevation of 7,500 feet above sea-level, though as regards 

 the blood of mice and of musk rats I have searched for them in vain both in Simla 

 and Calcutta. 



That they are, however, to be found in the blood of other animals has been 

 demonstrated by Dr. Grriffith Evans, the present chief of the veterinary department in 

 Madras, who, in 1880, whilst examining the blood of horses suffering from a wasting 

 form of disease termed " surra " in the Punjab, found that it frequently swarmed 

 with organisms of this character. Dr. Evans further made the very interesting ob- 

 servation that in the blood of a couple of camels, sufifering apparently from a 

 disease allied to surra in the horse, flagellated organisms were present in one, and 

 nematoid embryos, closely resembling those which I described some years ago as 

 being found in the blood of man, the Filaria sanguinis hominis* in the other. I 

 have elsewheref drawn attention to this parasite of the camel (parents and embryos), 

 and suggested that it might be called Filaria Evansi. I hope, however, to describe 

 it at greater length in the next number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 

 Science. 



With the view of ascertaining whether these flagellated organisms could be 

 transferred to other animals, Dr. Evans had injected some- blood from a horse, in 

 which these organisms abounded, into the subcutaneous tissue of a dog and of a 

 bitch, and on examining their blood four or five days afterwards precisely similar 

 organisms were found in the blood of the bitch, but not in that of the dog. This 

 bitch had a suckling puppy about a couple of months old, and its blood also con- 

 tained these organisms, although it had not been intentionally inoculated; but as 

 regards the possibility of the puppy having likewise been inoculated from the horse 

 it is to be mentioned that a little of the blood was given to the bitch to eat, and it is 

 quite possible that the puppy likewise consumed some of this. Unfortunately, the blood 

 of these animals had not been examined as a preliniinary procedure, so that it cannot 

 be definitely declared that the organisms had been derived from the blood of the 

 horse. It is just possible that they may have existed in their blood previously, and, 

 in this connection, it is to be borne in mind that as regards rats, attention was 

 drawn in my previous article to the circumstance that the blood of those caught in 



* "On a Haematozoon in Human Blood ; Its relation to Chyluria and other Diseases." Calcutta: Office of 

 Superintendent of Government Printing, 1872, and page 503 of this volume, 

 f " Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," March 1882. 



