48 ZOOLOGY. 



2. Gordiida'. Tlie geinis Filaria is long, slender, tbread-like, and smooth, 

 with a somewhat rigid texture, and many species ai'e found in various 

 animals, including insects and m<:>llusca. Filaria medinensis {pi. IT^Jig. 43), 

 the guinea worm, infests the muscles and subcutaneous tissues, chiefly 

 of the lower lifubs, in Arabia, Upper Egypt, West Africa, and the West 

 Indies. It is sometimes located about the eye, and beneath the tongue ; and 

 occasionally it makes its way to the surface of the body, causing a sore, 

 from which it may be extracted if a little is withdrawn daily, care being 

 taken not to break it, as in that case the inclosed part remains and causes 

 inflammation, which may render amputation necessary. A sailor, who 

 frequently met Africans on shipboard with sores caused by the worm, had 

 been on shore in West Africa for three hours barefoot, iiaving himself a 

 small sore on the thigh at the time. He arrived in England in October, 

 1843 ; and in the middle of the subsequent May a sore appeared on the left 

 instep, which finally opened and disclosed part of a white worm, about the 

 size of a violin string, of which live inches were cut ofl^'. This was succeeded 

 by violent inflammation and suppuration upon the foot and leg, until the 

 remaining two feet and a half of the worm came away. On the 23d of May 

 another sore, appeared upon the left fore-arm, disclosing a second filaria, 

 which '\\-as gradually and carefully removed in fourteen days, and found to 

 be thirty-two inches long. A third could then be felt under the integument 

 of the right foot. This species attains a length of six feet, and is said to be 

 sometimes seen swimming in the water of the countries it inhabits. 



Filaria jXQyillo-sa {fig. 45) is found in the abdomen, chest, and eyes of 

 the horse. Dr. Charles A. Lee gives a figure of it in the A'?n. J. Se'i., 1840, 

 vol. xxxiv. p. 279. lie states that it is from one to seven inches long, and 

 one third of a line in diameter. The specimen seen by him seems to have 

 grown from half an inch to about four inches in four months. 



Filaria phalangii {pi. 77, fig. 62) has been found in Phalangium 

 cornutum. 



Filaria lyeosa'., Hald. Pale-reddish when recent ; flavous when dried by 

 heat ; rigid, smooth, and shining, slightly tapering towards one end ; about 

 five inches long, and one millimetre in diameter at the largest end. Found 

 in Eastern Pennsylvania, in a specimen apparently of Lycosa scutulata^ 

 Ilentz, ten lines long, and, when the size of the spider is considered, a 

 remarkably large species. The sj)ecimen being much contorted, and one 

 end still within the spider, the precise length could not be determined. 

 Fig. 43 might pass for a representation of it, and the spider is a little larger 

 thmfig. 37" in pi. 78. 



The genus Gordius is found free in water, or as an internal parasite. 

 Gordius aquaticus is found under all these circumstances, as it has been 

 ascertained to infest insects. These worms resemble a thin thread or 

 stout hair, and being seen in running water, or in puddles along roads, 

 particularly after rain (see Mag. Nat. Hist.., 1836, pp. 9, 241-2, 355), they 

 are popularly sujiposed to be metamorphosed horse-hairs. They are male 

 and female, oviparous, and have a more complicated organization than their 

 external simplicity might be supposed to indicate. 

 252 



