12 Henry B. Ward 



3. Also at Cayenne in 1771 Bajon observed in an older negress 

 such a worm moving across the eye between conjunctiva and 

 cornea, but was not allowed to remove it. 



4. Mercier at St. Domingo in 1771 extracted a worm from 

 beneath the cornea of a negress. 



5. The same authority in 1774 removed from a negro a worm 

 which lay above the cornea. The record of cases 4 and 5 was 

 published by Arrachart in 1805. 



6. Arrachart notes that in 1795 Mile. L. Fraise, Creole, born in 

 St. Domingo, assured him that her brother had several times 

 such worms in his eyes at the age of three to five years ; they 

 were successfully extracted. She also adds that young negroes 

 were, often attacked. This striking note seems to have been 

 overlooked by students of the subject. The direct implica- 

 tion that the child was born in St. Domingo would indicate the 

 existence there at that time of a center of infection for F. loa, 

 such as is known to have existed for the Guinea worm (Dracun- 

 culus mcdinensis) at several points in the Western Hemisphere 

 during the continuance of the slave trade. The alternative that 

 some other species was involved seems less acceptable as there 

 are no other records favoring this view, unless the South Ameri- 

 can cases indicate the rare occurrence there of a native species 

 similar in habit to F. loa. 



7. The French naval surgeon, Guyot, made several voyages to 

 the coast of Angola. On one occasion, examining closely the 

 eye of a negress, he saw what seemed to be a varicose vein in 

 the conjunctiva, but when he touched it with the point of a lancet 

 the object disappeared. It appeared several times in the same 

 patient at irregular intervals, and he thought that between times 

 the worm retired to the posterior region of the orbit. He 

 recorded the native name of Loa, the common occurrence of the 

 malady, the irregular appearances of the worm in the eye, and 

 the inefficacy of all medication. The case was first published in 

 Arrachart, 1805. 



8-12. In 1777 Guyot made a new voyage to the coast of An- 

 gola. He observed again this verminous ophthalmia among the 

 negroes of the Congo, and in two cases out of five succeeded in 



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