1882 ] Dr Lewis — BemnrJci on a Nematoid JIcBmatozoon, G3 



3. RemarJcs on a Nematoid Scematozoon discovered hy Dr. Griffilh 

 Eoans in a Camel. — By Surgeon-Major T. R. Lewis, M. B. 



Dr. Lewis observed that the occasional presence of nematoid organisms 

 in the blood of various animals had long been ascertained, and that it would 

 be known to some of the members that, about ten years ago, he had drawn 

 attention to the fact that in India a somewhat similar condition was 

 observable in man, and that this condition was associated with certain 

 forms of grave disease. Since this period the literature of the subject had 

 very rapidly increased and numerous confirmatory observations had been 

 made in various parts of the world. Our knowledge of the haimatozoa of 

 lower animals had also been very greatly extended during the same period 

 and of recent observations of this kind the most important which he 

 knew of was one which had been made by Dr. Griffith Evans, the present 

 head of the Veterinary Department in Madras, who, whilst making a post- 

 mortem examination of a camel at Dera Ismail Khan, in October 1880, 

 found that the blood of the animal swarmed with the brood of a nematoid 

 parasite resembling the hsematozoon found in man. Dr. Evans found, fur- 

 ther, that the parental form existed in the lungs, the pulmonary arteries 

 of which were plugged by tangled masses of the thread-like parasites. 

 They were also found in the mesentery. A comparison of these hsematozoa 

 with those found in man shows that whereas the embryonal forms of both 

 kinds are indistinguishable under the microscope, nevertheless the mature 

 form as met with in the camel differs, both as to size and structure, from 

 the only male and female specimen of the mature form met with in man 

 which has hitherto been obtained in India, and so far as the speaker was 

 aware this hsematozoon of the camel differs from any hitherto described 

 parasite. Should further enquiry confirm the supposition that the parasite 

 is new to science he proposed that it should be called Filaria Eoaiisi. 



Dr. Lewis submitted mature specimens of the Filaria Evansi and of 

 the Filaria sanguinis-hominis to the meeting, as well as samples of tho 

 microscopic embryos of both kinds ; and furnished the following preliminary 

 description of the mature hsematozoon of the camel. 



FiLAEIA EVANSI, Sp. nOV. 



The male measures from 3" to 4|" in length and from g-y to -^-^^ 

 transversely at the widest part. At the oral end the width is about -^\q" 

 and about one-third of an inch lower down the width equals -^." The tail 

 tapers to a blunt point and is curled into two or three coils. There are 

 two spicules ; the longer measures -^~' and the shorter yio''- The cloaca 

 is situated at g^ ' from the end of the tail. The bursa is small and is 

 characterised by four pairs of pre-anal and two pairs of post-anal papilUe, 

 with a fifth post-anal papilla close to the tip of the tail. The mouth does 



