Parasites of the Circulatory System. 407 



Junfes and Piot), Buenos Ayres (Doerssel) and Caracao (Doers- 

 sel). It may be found in any part of the body but usually 

 affects the legs, forming an oblong tumor, extended parallel to 

 the long bones, and in which the outline of the spirally twisted 

 worm can be felt through the skin. At first painless, this swell- 

 ing becomes more and more tender and sensitive, the dog shrinks 

 from having it touched, growls and snaps at the person who at- 

 tempts to do so, licks it frequently, and by restless changes of 

 position or place indicates intense local suffering. The pain is 

 intermittent or remittent, the progress of the disease being mark- 

 ed by periods of rest interrupted by times of extreme pain cor- 

 responding to the movements of the worm or the activity of the 

 inflammation. Soon foci of suppuration are developed which 

 burst discharging a seropurulent fluid, and fi.stulse are established 

 from one of which the end of the worm in time protrudes. With 

 the appearance of the worm the nature of the case becomes clear. 

 I,eft to itself the worm would naturally tend to withdraw itself, 

 and decomposing in moist earth or water, would contribute its 

 progenj' toward the maintenance of the species. More commonly 

 in his efforts to get rid of it the dog drags upon it with his teeth, 

 tears it in two, or in exceptional cases extracts the whole worm 

 (Piot). When torn across, the imbedded portion retracts itself 

 within the tissues and keeps up the irritation, though, owing to 

 the customary resistance of the dog to pus and other microbes, 

 the gravity of the case is not seriously encreased. Rupture of 

 the filaria in man has been known to induce dangerous infection 

 and even death. As many as five of these worms have been 

 found in one dog. 



Dracontiasis in the Horse. In the recorded cases in the 

 horse the worm was found in the limbs, in the lower part of the 

 hind pastern (Clarkson), beneath the carpus (Burke), and on 

 the outside of the hock (Fleming). Fleming's case was in an 

 Australian horse, which had been for some time in India, and a 

 full year in North China before the symptoms were observed. 

 The parasite, therefore, probably entered in India or China. The 

 swelling, at first mistaken for the result of a bruise, was fomented 

 for several days, when it opened discharging a worm 18 inches 

 in length. Relief was immediate and the horse returned to work 

 in a day or two. 



