388 ENTOZOA. 



6. The male sexually-mature Dracunculus is at present un- 

 known ; in all probability it is very much smaller than the female, 

 non-parasitic as far as animal bearers are concerned, and a constant 

 inhabitant of fresh water, mud, and moist earth. 



7. In all likelihood the male Dracunculus bears a close resem- 

 blance to Urobales palustris, or to some other of the numerous 

 allied microscopic forms of Filarige, which abound in the natural 

 and artificial water-reservoirs above mentioned. 



8. The young Dracunculi probably acquire sexual-maturity 

 shortly after their escape from the parent ; the sexes associating 

 in muddy waters during the monsoon, after which period the 

 males, in all likelihood, rapidly perish, the females being left to 

 watch their opportunity for further development by migration into 

 the human body. 



9. The impregnated females do not gain access to their bearers 

 by the mouth or stomach of the latter ; on the contrary, there, is 

 every reason to believe that they enter the body in a direct manner, 

 probably by penetrating the sudorific ducts of the skin. 



10. Within the tissues of the bearer they grow with consider- 

 able rapidity, and in about twelve months, more or less, give rise 

 to a formidable entozootic disease (dracontiasis) which, after pro- 

 longed monsoons, is not unfrequently severely endemic. 



31. Dracunculus Loa. 



Dracunculus Loa, Cobbold. 



D. oculi, Diesing. 



Loa, Guyot ; Bajon ; Mongin ; Guyon ; etc. 



Filaria medinensis, Gmelin. 



F. lacrymalis, Dubini. 



F. oculi, Gervais and Van Beneden ; Moquin-Tq,ndon. 



Before I became acquainted with Diesing' s recent determination 

 to separate this worm from the little group of eye-nematodes already 



