The earliest record of Filaria loa.) 
By 
Henry B. Ward. 
arious authors have chronicled the existence of a drawing 
representing the extraction of /7/arza loa in the sixteenth 
ee i century, and have generally regarded it as the earliest 
evidence of the occurrence of this parasite thus far noted. So far 
as I have been able to find, the first reference to this illustration 
occurs in Guyon (64:747) who refers to it as found in a book 
printed in Frankfort in 1598; he says it is a plate intercalated in 
a description of the Guinea Worm (Dracunculus medinensis) and 
one of the scenes on it portrays the extraction of a Filaria from 
the eye. This species is not named in the text; by virtue couts 
location, however, it should be regarded as the form now called 
Filaria loa, rather than as the Guinea worm. The original publi- 
cation is said to be one translated from Italian into Latin by 
C. Reinus under the title, „Vera descriptio regni africani, quod 
tam ab incolis quam Lusitanis Congus appellatur“. 
This record has been cited by many later authors, among 
others notably by Manson, Moniez (96), and Blanchard (86), 
but the most recent discussion of it is found in Blanchard (99), 
who prints a copy of the ancient plate and says (p. 527): 
„Le plus ancien document que nous possédons relativement 
au Loa est une curieuse gravure publiée par Pigafetta, en 1598 
(fig. 12). On y voit un personnage qui est en train de s’extirper 
une Filaire de Médine; un autre Ver, déjà en partie enroulé sur 
un bàton, sort de sa jambe droite. Un autre personnage subit 
1) Studies from the Zoological Laboratory, The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 
under the direction of Henry B. Ward, No. 61. 
