1894.] Mr Shipley, Notes on a Dog's Heart. 211 



3Iay 14, 1894. 



The Master of Downing College, Vice-President, 

 IN THE Chair. 



F. F. Blackman, B.A., St John's College, was elected a Fellow 

 of the Society. 



The following Communications were made to the Society : 



(1) Mr S. J. HiCKSON exhibited a specimen of Chelifer from 

 Celebes shewing a remarkable sense-organ on the coxse of the 

 last legs. 



(2) Notes on a Bog's Heart infested luith Filaria immitis. 

 By Arthur E. Shipley, M.A. 



The specimen which I have the honour of showing the Society 

 this evening is the heart of a large dog of unknown breed which 

 was sent to the Pathological Museum from Fiji, and I am indebted 

 to the kindness of Sir George Humphry for the opportunity of 

 investigating it. 



The right ventricle is literally stuffed with a tangled mass 

 of Nematode worms, which extend into the pulmonary arteries 

 and project from the cut ends of the smaller pulmonary vessels. 

 To such an extent are the lumina of the ventricle and the vessels 

 occluded that it seems impossible to realize that the dog lived any 

 time with so great an obstruction to its circulation. 



The Nematodes which I believe belong to the species Filaria 

 immitis, often termed the "cruel worms," are so matted and twisted 

 together that it was a matter of considerable difficulty to dis- 

 entangle a specimen; more especially as I was anxious not to 

 derange the mass, as the heart is destined to become a museum 

 preparation. With some difficulty however I managed to with- 

 draw a single female from the cluster, and this proved to be 

 26 cms. in length. The males which live along with the females 

 are about half the length, varying from 12 to 15 cms. According 

 to Meguin (9) there is about one male to three females ; but this 

 proportion is not very accurately determined, as he refrained, 

 for the same reason that deterred me, from pulling the cluster 

 to pieces. 



The parasite was named by Leidy (6) and is the same as the 

 Filaria papillosa haematica of Gruby and Delafond (4) or the 

 Filaria haematica of Galeb and Pourquier (2). It attacks various 

 breeds of dogs and sometimes causes a wide-spread mortality : for 

 instance, a certain Mrs Towne of Beaufort, South Carolina, states 

 (6) that she " lost several dogs of different breed, age and birth- 

 place," whilst " a gentleman living in a neighbouring island (the 



15—2 



