NATURE OF THE DRACUNCULUS, OR GUINEAWORM. 123 
been carefully examined having proved to be female and viviparous—and that there 
was no trace of distinct genital organs, the young being apparently produced in the 
general cavity of the body. The existence of a blind intestinal canal, as demonstrated 
by Mr. Busk, was not incompatible with this theory, as it has been shown by M. Filippi* 
that some of the ** nurses" (redi) are characterized by the possession of a rudimentary 
alimentary canal, whilst others (sporocystes) are simple saes containing young, without 
viscera of any kind. But the discovery in the Guineaworm of distinct genital organs, 
with a vascular and nervous apparatus, fairly entitles us, I think, to look upon this 
worm as a fully developed specimen of one of the highest types of the order Nematoidea, 
and more particularly so as the remaining special grounds which induced Mr. Busk to 
advance his hypothesis can be explained in other ways. 
The common opinion prevailing in India amongst the natives is, that the ova or 
young of some aquatie worm enter the body with the water that is drunk, and in some 
unexplained way get to the subcutaneous tissue, and there become developed into Guinea- 
worms. But the opinion of most naturalists and scientific men is opposed to this, and 
more in accordance with the general nature of the evidence bearing on the question. 
They agree so far with the popular belief, that in the early stage this parasite is a 
microscopic animaleule, having its habitat in water and damp places, but that it makes 
its entrance into the human body by being brought into direct contact with the naked 
integuments, which it perforates in some unascertained manner. I should not have 
thought it necessary to bring forward evidence in support of this latter view, had it not 
been that the former hypothesis has been maintained by many medical men in India, 
' and even as late as 1856 has been again strongly advocated by Dr. Greenhowt. 
Granting that the ova or young are capable of resisting the action of the gastric juice}, 
the former view altogether fails to account for the overwhelming frequency with which 
the parasite is found in the lower extremities rather than equally diffused throughout the 
cellular tissue of the body generally, in the same way as we find Trichina spiralis 
universally distributed through all the muscles of the body. 
But in support of the opinion that the Guineaworm enters directly from without, 
we have the positive evidence that the parasites are met with most frequently in 
just those parts of the body that are oftenest brought in contact with water or damp 
marshy places. From some statistics collected from the Indian journals by Professor 
Aitken, and kindly placed at my disposal, I find that, out of 930 recorded cases of 
Dracunculus, 98°85 per cent. occurred in some part of the lower extremities, and the 
great majority of them about the feet and ankles. A similar distribution is observed 
* * Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire génétique des Trématodes," Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, 1854. 
T Indian Annals of Medical Science, vol. iii., 1856. : 
t I do not lay any stress upon the experiments of Forbes (Trans. of Med. & Phys. Soc. of Caleutta, vol..i.), who 
tested the action of the gastric juice upon the young of the Guineaworm, by giving some, suspended in water, fresh 
from a Sepoy’s leg, to two young puppy dogs, one of which was killed four hours and the other twenty-four Me 
after, and in both cases all the young worms were found “dead in the mucus of the stomach and duodenum, 
because it is not fair to draw inferences from the effects of experiments upon the young of the parasitic Guineaworm 
which have been produced and reared in such an unusual situation, and then apply them to the young of an aquatic 
animalcule subject to such totally different conditions. 
