396 SANITARY CONDITIONS 



and any oculist who cares to spend a few weeks among these unfortunate people 

 would find his labors amply rewarded. 



FiLARIASIS. 



While at Nassau, Mr. Beasley and I made several visits to the hospital at 

 midnight for the purpose of examining the blood of patients for FiJaria. We 

 were fortunate enough to discover one of these embryonic parasites in a man 

 who had recently been received from Long Island, Bahamas (Plate LXXVII). 

 This parasite, which is a minute, transparent little worm and is usually found 

 wriggling about in a state of great activity, was in this instance motionless, 

 and we were inclined to believe that it belonged to the species Filario. diurna, 

 which is active only in the daytime, whereas the species Filaria nocturna is 

 generally only active at night, and found in the peripheral circulation at this 

 time. Some credence was given to this belief by the fact that the specimen 

 which was motionless at night, later, on the following day became active and 

 was seen to be struggling in the field of the microscope, lashing the red blood 

 corpuscles about in a furious manner. However, subsequent examinations 

 from the blood of the same patient showed active parasites at night, and we 

 were inclined to think the species was that of Filaria nocturna, and that the 

 man by sleeping during the day favored its appearance in the circulation 

 at that time. On measurement, these embryos were found to be about ^^ of 

 an inch in length by j^Vtj of an inch in diameter, or about the diameter of a 

 red blood corpuscle. We discovered only one other case of filariasis during 

 our cruise in the Bahamas and that was at Hopetown, Abaco. The patient was 

 a little boy. Only one specimen of his blood was obtained, after which the 

 youngster, who was evidently frightened, disappeared and could not again be 

 found. We only discovered one case of elephantiasis. This was in an old 

 colored woman at Current Settlement, Eleuthera, who had an involvement of 

 the leg of moderate grade only, but gave a history of similar conditions in her 

 family. This case will be discussed later. 



We obtained numerous specimens of this filarial parasite. Of all the 

 stains used the most successful was the soda eosin methylene blue stain, pre- 

 pared according to the formula of Dr. Wright of Boston. Under the low power 

 it appeared to be without structure, and seemed to be enclosed in a delicate 

 sheaLh in which it moved backward and forward. This sack or sheath was 

 longer than the worm it encloses. About the posterior part of the middle third 

 there was an aggregation of granular material ; this ran for some distance in the 



