Filaria loa 3 



identify the case of Mrs. R. with the one reported by Wilson in 

 1890 and enrolled as case 31 in my list below. If so, three 

 other specimens were removed from the same host and all these 

 three from the eyelids : additional evidence in favor of assigning 

 this form to F. loa. Regarding these cases Dr. Loveland writes 

 as follows : 



"About 1890 Mrs. R. was under my care and told me that she 

 was the possessor of one of those worms which would make its 

 appearance at times in the eye and at times come up close under 

 the skin in some other region, where it would produce a sensa- 

 tion of stinging or irritation. I told her to call me at once when 

 it should appear, as she said that it would disappear very quickly 

 into the deeper tissues. She came to my office one evening and 

 told me her worm had come to the surface on her back. And on 

 inspection it appeared not far from the lower angle of her left 

 shoulder blade, where it gave the appearance of a thread drawn 

 in rather crookedly just as close as possible to the cuticle, where 

 it could be felt as well as seen. 



"I made a quick incision parallel to it in the middle, and grasp- 

 ing it with a pair of small forceps slowly withdrew it as it 'let 

 go,' so to speak. It was of the type of nematode or round worm, 

 about one and one-half or possibly two inches in length when 

 stretched out, but contracted to much shorter. I had the mis- 

 fortune to lose it while I was away on a vacation some months 

 later — I think it was a Loa. 



"In 1898, while still at Clifton, Dr. Spaulding called me into 

 his office to see something in the eye of Mrs. J., an African mis- 

 sionary patient of his, the like of which he had never seen. I 

 recognized what I thought to be the same worm and secured it 

 at once. This worm I have to-day mailed you ; it was, so far as 

 I could tell, the same as the one I removed from the back of Mrs. 

 R. in 1890. 



"She [Mrs. J.] says they are quite common in that part of 

 Africa, Batanga, West Africa, where she was stationed. 



"She says that her husband and children have all had them. 

 She also says that the worms make sores on the hands or feet 

 and are sometimes captured at those times and places. It is only 



273 



