FILABIA IN THE BLOOD. 149 



fatal results do not occur for a short time — that is, where the blood 

 oozes out slowly and fills the sac gradually — it is impossible to 

 make a certain diagnosis. This is also the case wlien air or blood 

 (pneuniocarditis) penetrates into the cavity from the lungs in cases 

 of some traumatism of ihose organs. 



Filaria in the Blood. 



Three kinds of parasites have been found in the blood, namely 

 filaria immitis, spiroptera sanguinolenta, and strongylus vasorum. 



PilarisB Immitis (males 130 mm. and females 250 mm. long; 

 both 1.5 mm. thick). They generally lie in the right side of the 

 heart ; very rarely in the left. Its embryos, which are 0. 25 mm. 

 long and 0.05 thick, inhabit the blood directly in the circulation 

 (Delafond, Nocard, Gruby, Euether, Johne, Rieck, Deffe, and 

 others). This parasite is generally found in Indian, Chinese, 

 and American dogs, especially in the Southern States. Wheeler 

 rarely made a post-mortem that he did not find it, often with- 

 out presenting any observable symptoms during life. It is 

 rarely found in Europe. The characteristic symptoms are 

 emaciation, epileptiform convulsions, unconsciousness, dyspnoea, 

 and rabiform symptoms. How the parasites find their way into 

 the blood is rather interesting. The embryo is passed in the 

 urine and carried by air or water into rice-fields or swampy 

 places, and. the parasite finds its way into the system by the 

 dog drinking the water. Some authors contend that the larvae 

 get into the blood like the larvEe of the filaria sanguinis, by being 

 first absorbed by the mosquito and then developed and passed 

 again to the dog. The only case observed by the author was a 

 dog which had been imported from India and brought to the hos- 

 pital to be treated for a large wound. The subject was emaciated 

 and anaemic, but seemed to be very healthy otherwise ; he had a 

 good appetite, so that we did not consider it necessary to make an 

 examination of the circulatory apparatus. One morning the 

 patient died in his box. On post-mortem there were all the 

 symptoms of imperfect circulation of all the veins of the poste- 

 rior extremities, distention of the base of the heart, and disten- 

 tion of the right ventricle, the wall being thickened about 1 or 

 2 cm. ; the chamber was filled with dark red blood-clots, and in 



