Filaria ha 37 



Cleniow is in error when he writes (1903:610) that it seems 

 to be absent from Kamerun. In a monograph on the Kamerun 

 coast Plehn (1898) recorded four cases in man and other facts 

 regarding" this parasite which demonstrate unmistakably its 

 endemicity in that region. To this evidence one must add that 

 given in the present paper on cases in Americans who were 

 undoubtedly infected in that same state where they resided as 

 missionaries for some time. 



These facts indicate that the parasite is distributed over the 

 entire, coast from about 5° north of the equator to at least 10° 

 south, and various observers say that in certain regions nearly 

 every inhabitant suffers from it. This is recorded for the Ogowe 

 river by Mi^s Mary Kingsley, the well-known African traveler 

 (1897:686). 



How far it may penetrate into the interior of the continent 

 is as yet unknown. Certain it is, however, that cases occur more 

 than 120 miles from the coast (Yarr, 1899), while a recent paper 

 (Brumpt, 1904) records its presence in a post-mortem made in 

 Kassai, approximately 600 miles from the coast on one of the 

 chief tributaries of the Congo. More precise knowledge of the 

 life history, especially of the intermediate host and means of 

 transfer of the species, would enable one to give a better esti- 

 mate of its range. Apparently the blood-inhabiting- embryos 

 which are now regarded as belonging to this species have a 

 much wider distribution than F. ho. itself. 



Thus it is true that Filaria diurna has been recorded as far 

 inland as Uganda, Central Africa, where Cook (1901) saw two 

 cases. One should bear in mind that our knowledge of the 

 microfilariae is not sufificiently exact to enable the positive asser- 

 tion that no other form exists in Africa which might be confused 

 with the embryos of Filaria ha. But granting the certainty 

 of the determination, there yet remains reasonable probability 

 that the men in question were infected at a distance from 

 the place in which they were examined. Cook also records in 

 Uganda one case of Dracnncnlns mcdincnsis, showing the ten- 

 dency of movements over the great trade routes of the continent 

 to bring together this species and Filaria loa which in general 



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