FILARIA IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



133 



Grouped according to races the number of examinations and infections 

 are shown in the following table : 



Table III. — Racial infection with filaria. 



Race. 



Filipino 



Moro 



Japanese 



Chinese 



American negro 



Total 



Exami- 

 nations. 



6,035 

 384 

 39 

 26 



420 



6,804 



Cases. 



118 



5 

 1 

 1 

 2 



127 



Per cent. 



1.9 



1.7 



The negros examined were soldiers, and are not included in the first 

 table. They had all been serving in the Cotobato district of Mindanao 

 for a little over a year before the examinations were made. One of the 

 two found infected was from Charleston, South Carolina, where cases 

 of filariasis are occasionally seen, and the other from Porto Rico where 

 the disease is rife. Therefore, the question as to where these two men 

 were residing when they became infected must be considered doubtful. 

 However, the Porto Eican had been in the Philippine Islands only 5 

 months when the parasite was found, and the two men had been in the 

 same company for two years; it is possible, therefore, that the Porto 

 Eican was infected in his own country and later was the source of infection 

 of the other case. 



V. THE FILARIAL PARASITES OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 



Only a small number of the cases seen or reported have been studied 

 with a view to the identification of the parasite. Such as we have studied, 

 however, have shown embryos fulfilling the requirements of the micro- 

 filaria Bancrofti, perhaps more widely known as the Filaria nocturna. 

 No specimen of the adult worm has been seen, so that identification has 

 been made wholly by means of the embryo. No example of the Filaria 

 philippinensis of Ashburn and Craig has been observed. From the south- 

 ern islands medical officers of the Army have reported a microfilaria 

 without a sheath and with apparently diurnal periodicity, but these 

 observations have not been verified. 



Of the filaria of the lower animals, the Filaria immitis of the dog and 

 a filaria analogous to the Filaria ha of man, but parasitic in the horse, 

 are known to occur here. Dr. Bishop, of the Manila city stables, reported 

 having seen the Filaria immitis in two wolves dying at the zoological 

 garden, and Dr. Love of the Army saw a case in a house dog at Jolo. 



