36 Henry B. Ward 



It is noteworthy that all of the persons affected were mission- 

 aries in those regions, and all but one had suffered from the 

 presence of more than a single specimen of the parasite, which 

 fact points distinctly to its prevalence in the regions in which 

 they had livejd. In further support of this view may be cited 

 also their own testimony on this point as already given. 



In the foregoing paragraphs have been analyzed all cases of 

 this parasite from other regions than Africa, and it has been 

 shown that they are widely scattered both in time and in space, 

 and also that in all cases there is an apparent connection with a 

 previous residence of the host on the African continent. It is 

 accordingly fit to examine more in detail the evidence concern- 

 ing the abundance and distribution of F. loa in that continent. • 

 All, records indicate that the West Coast of Africa is the 

 proper home of the parasite. One case which is reported from 

 Sierra Leone marks its northern limit of extension. And even 

 here the author (Prout, 1902) emphasizes the fact that no pre- 

 vious cases had been reported in this region, and that the patient 

 had been living on the Congo, so that the infection probably 

 occurred in the latter place. The specimens of Looss ( 1904) 

 came from the Gold Coast, but no further information as to 

 their source has been published, nor are other cases from this 

 region on record, although the host in case 46 is believed to 

 have become infected in this territory and said such cases were 

 common in that region. 



From this point onward along the coast towards the south 

 every territory has furnished many records of this disease. In 

 Nigeria ten cases are on record in my list, from Old Calabar 

 five cases, from Kamerun eight cases, from French Congo twenty 

 cases, from Angola six cases. Eight cases are not precisely 

 located, but belong to some part of this Western Coast. In addi- 

 tion it has already been noted that the thirty-six cases of this 

 parasite from Australia, Europe, ,and America owe their infec- 

 tion with great probability to this same region, eight being traced 

 clearly to the Congo, eight to Kamerun, and six to Old Calabar, 

 while in one case the host has visited this entire region at 

 intervals. 



306 



