Filaria loa 49 



and comes from the observation of a French physician, Lota, 

 who had opportunity to study the action of the worm in his own 

 eye. 



After his stay in Gaboon and return to France, Lota suffered 

 oft-recurring- conjunctivitis with which he was not previously 

 afflicted. Suddenly he felt in the right eye a sting without out- 

 ward cause, and a feeling of heaviness which was unpleasant, 

 while at the same time there arose an active injection of the con- 

 junctiva bulbi. These symptoms disappeared on application of 

 cold lotions to the eye, but recurred in a few days. Lota attached 

 no importance to the matter. Five months after his return he 

 was awakened from sleep one morning by a sharp pain in the 

 right eye. He had the sensation of a foreign body under the 

 upper lid, accompanied by frequent winking. As he drew up the 

 upper lid before a mirror, he noticed the conjunctiva was red- 

 dened, swollen, and slightly elevated. He recognized under it a 

 yellow irregular mass without being able to determine its nature. 

 The sensation of a foreign body lasted about two hours and then 

 ceased suddenly. Lota investigated the eye again and could 

 determine only a slight conjunctivitis; the yellow body was gone! 



That evening the same symptoms came on again. Lota noted 

 on the sclera a yellow, round body of the caliber of a knitting 

 needle, about 2 to 3 cm. long, which moved itself from the ex- 

 ternal angle of the eye towards the caruncle, at times straight, 

 again bending itself into U and S shapes; it crept along- under 

 the corium above the sclera only to disappear at the inner angle 

 of the eye. Next evening the worm showed itself under similar 

 circumstances below the conjunctiva above the cornea; here it 

 remained a long time so that several colleagues of Lota could 

 observe its presence and movements. It then disappeared again 

 into the depth of the eye and never appeared thereafter. Its 

 presence had induced no further change on the bulb than an 

 insignificant elevation of the connective tissue. The visual power 

 was never disturbed. 



6. Critical Bibliography of Filaria loa 



The accompanying bibliography includes all references to 

 Filaria loa and also all which at any time, so far as I have been 



319 



