6 Henry B. Ward 



removed.^ She presented herself to me with the folloAving story : 

 That at times she would begin to feel an uncomfortable suspicion 

 of burning and fulness in some part of the body, and that after 

 a time she could see something crawling under the skin. This 

 would last a few minutes, and then the part where it approached 

 the surface would swell up, be sore for a day or two, and dis- 

 appear, the amount of swelling depending a good deal upon the 

 location. For example, if near the eyelids there would be very 

 marked swelling. Several times she tame to my office, but by 

 the time she reached there the worm had disappeared, and I 

 began to think the life on the West Coast had afifected her brain. 

 However, at last she came and I saw the movement under the 

 skin for myself. 



"The appearance was of a thin, white line, drawing itself up, 

 and then projecting one end forward like the movement of a 

 'caterpillar' ; presently the forward end would begin to disap- 

 pear, and finally the whole 'streak' would disappear from view. 

 The next time I cut for it, but did so about its middle, and before 

 I could pick up a pair of forceps to grasp it, the worm was out 

 of sight. I then prepared a very sharp scalpel and, a pair of fine 

 pointed tissue forceps, and kept them in readiness, and after 

 repeated attempts the patient came in. This time the filaria 

 was crawling under the skin of the chest over the manubrium 

 sterni. I cut the skin just behind the forward extremity and 

 made a 'grasp' into the incision, when the patient assured me I 

 had hold of it for she could feel it squirm. I pulled very cau- 

 tiously, and a thread-like structure came out nearly two inches 

 long, and about the size, I should say, of a No. CO catgut suture 

 material. There was never any recurrence of the trouble." 



The second case in Canada occurred in the practice of Dr. 

 Frederick Fenton of Toronto. He removed two specimens at 

 different times from the eyelids of a patient. The specimens 

 were identified as F. loa, and although the extended mss. record 

 of the microscopical examination made at the time, which Dr. 



^This specimen, of which I have been unable to get further information, 

 was also removed in Canada. 



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