8 Ward, The earliest record of Filaria loa. 383 
of the study of the text which contains no hint of worms in the 
eye, but fer contra confines them to the legs, while it explains 
minutely the custom of putting out the sight of the king’s rela- 
tives. In these particulars all editions agree fully. 
The artist must have relied upon some description, written 
or verbal, much more extensive than the very general account of 
the worms given in the text, for he portrays with some accuracy 
the gradual rolling of the Guinea Worm on a split stick, indi- 
cating not only the active process but the custom reported by 
later authors of pausing occasionally during the extraction of the 
parasite and permitting the worm to relax before proceeding 
further. Thus while he winds at one specimen, another worm 
half extracted hangs from the other leg. 
This representation of dracontiasis is urged by Blanchard 
in support of his views regarding the other figures in the plate; 
but it seems rather to militate against the explanation he gives 
since the best authorities contend that the Guinea Worm and 
Filaria loa do not both occur in the same territory. Now the 
island of Ormus lies at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, within 
the limits ordinarily accorded to Dracunculus medinensis but far 
removed from the home of /7/aria loa. Furthermore the person 
whose eyes are being treated is under evident restraint and mani- 
fests too great resistance and pain for one undergoing a simple 
operation for the removal of /7/arza loa which is also described 
by later authors as but little painful. In the plate just behind 
this group one sees a figure as of a blind man led away by two 
attendants, a further detail in accord with the text and the ori- 
ginal inscription of the plate. The room at the left of the plate 
represents the supposed method of sleeping in tubs of water 
during hot weather. The figure at the extreme right has too 
much the appearance of a North American Indian to belong 
properly in such a plate. 
In view of this discussion it may fairly be maintained that 
the internal evidence also is irreconcilable with the thory of Guyon, 
Manson and Blanchard. Neither the account of this voyage nor 
the questionable plate can stand as a record of Filarza loa, but 
only for Dracunculus medinensis. The earliest record of 7: loa 
becomes then that of Mongin (1770) nearly two centuries later. 
