THE LAST WINTER 453 



Our worst trouble with the dogs came from far away — 

 probably from Asia. There are references in Scott's diary 

 to four dogs as attacked by a mysterious disease during 

 our first year in the South : one of these dogs died within 

 two minutes. We lost many more dogs the last year, and 

 Atkinson has given me the following memorandum upon 

 the parasite, a nematode worm, which was discovered later 

 to be the cause of the trouble : 



"Filaria immitis. — A certain proportion of the dogs be- 

 came infected with this nematode, and it was the cause of 

 their death, mainly in the second year. It was present at 

 the time the expedition started (19 10) all down the Pacific 

 side of Asia and Papua, and there was an examination 

 microscopically of all dogs imported at this time into New 

 Zealand. The secondary host is the mosquito Culex. 



" The symptoms varied. The onset was usually with in- 

 tense pain, during which the animal yelled and groaned : 

 this was cardiac in origin and referable to the presence of 

 the mature form in the beast. There was marked haema- 

 turia, and the animals were anaemic from actual loss of 

 haemoglobins. In nearly all cases there was paralysis affect- 

 ing the hindquarters during the later stages, which tended 

 to spread upwards and finally ended in death. 



"The probable place of infection was Vladivostok before 

 the dogs were put on board ship and deported to New Zea- 

 land. The only method of coping with the disease is pre- 

 vention of infection in infected areas. It is probable that 

 the mosquitoes would not bite after the dog's coat had been 

 rubbed with paraffin : or mosquito netting might be placed 

 over the kennels, especially at night time. The larval forms 

 were found microscopically in the blood, and one mature 

 form in the heart." 



We were too careful about killing animals. I have ex- 

 plained how Campbell's party was landed at Evans Coves. 

 Some of the party wanted to kill some seals on the off 

 chance of the ship not turning up to relieve them. This was 

 before they were in any way alarmed. But it was decided 

 that life might be taken unnecessarily if they did this — and 

 that winter this party nearly died of starvation. And yet this 



