Filaria loa 39 



From the lens this species has not been extracted, and those 

 cases in which such a form has been reported from the vitreous 

 humor are most uncertain. They rest in the main upon deter- 

 mination in Hfe by the ophthahnoscope. But this method of pro- 

 cedure has resulted, in some cases at least, in confusion with a 

 persistent hyaloid artery of peculiar form, as in the descriptions 

 of Eversbusch, Fano, Malgat, Ouadri, and Scholer, while the 

 oft cited account of Kuhnt concerns a peculiar small nematode, 

 certainly not the species under consideration. 



Roth is of the opinion that these parasites leave the eye by 

 way of the nasal duct. More probably this is only apparently 

 true, since, as Dr. Friend suggests (p. 5), the worm nearly 

 always goes out of view by way of the inner canthus. 



Outside pf the eyeball F. loa has been reported at least ten 

 times as occurring in the eyelid, both upper and lower lid having 

 been infected. From this position it has been removed six times 

 or more. 



F. loa has also been reported as wandering back into the orbit, 

 as in cases 14, 19, and 22, and while no one of these cases is 

 beyond doubt as to the species in question or the location of the 

 parasite, there seems to be no question, on the other hand, that 

 the loose connective tissues of this part afford the most ready 

 resting place from which the parasite may make its excursions 

 over the cornea at short intervals, as reported by several 

 observers. 



When in other parts of the body than the eye the parasite 

 eludes observation in general, but it is important to note that 

 nevertheless it has been seen and extracted many times in other 

 regions, especially in the subdermal connective tissue. Thus it 

 has been observed to cross the bridge of the nose from eye to 

 eye (case 38) ; it has been excised from below the loose skin 

 of the back (cases 31, 54, 88), from the skin above the sterno- 

 cleido-mastoid muscle (case 94), the sternum (case 69), and 

 the left breast (cases 72, 73. 94), from the lingual frenum (case 

 74), from the loose skin of the penis (case 59) ; it has been seen 

 beneath the skin of the fingers, both in himself and in others, 

 by the Rev. Dr. Nassau, a missionary long resident in Gaboon 



309 



