HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



Lewis's investigations, who doubtless found them in a 

 case of leprosy, but the patient was also suffering from 

 chyluria. The Nematoids are admittedly closely 

 related to the latter disease ; and seemingly only 

 accidentally so to the former. Here we may note 

 that leprosy was known to the Greeks as elephan- 

 tiasis, and to the Arabians as lepra ; but that it 

 differs from the lepra of the Greeks, and from the 

 elephantiasis of the Arabians. E. Arabum, or 



lymph-scrotum, and chylous dropsy of, the peri- 

 toneum and tunica vaginalis testis, than with leprosy. 

 The presence of the Filarial, whether in the blood, 

 the tissues, or the secretions, points to abnormalities 

 in the '• lymphatic system, the result of long-continued 

 residence !^inj[tropical climates. They utilize the 

 mosquito as an intermediate bast ; and ]in one of 

 his papers on the subject, Lewis described the 

 changes undergone by[the Nematoid in the alimentary 



Fig. 5. — c. Filaria, head and taij 

 of b more highly magnified. 



Fig. 4.— a. Leucocytes (stained with ro=eine); one with three nuclei. 

 b. Filaria, with tail retracted in sheath. 



Fig. 6.— d. Filaria, head and tail of another 

 specimen ; both ends retracted. 



Fig. 7. — e. Crenated red 

 corpuscles associated 

 with the Filarial de- 

 lineated above. 



JxZZO 



Fig. 8.— -f. Sarcoptec, moult obtained from 

 same blood. 



N.B. — a and b were draw n under an $ in. objective, and to one scale : c, (fand e under a 

 under a £ in. at 10 in., and magnified 320 diameters. 



in. and to another ; /, was drawn 



Barbadoes leg, is a tropical disease prevalent in 

 Arabia, Africa, and India, and causes the legs to 

 swell to an enormous size, hence its name ; but its 

 symptoms differ from those of leprosy. While, then, 

 the evidence indicates that elephantiasis is closely 

 associated with Filarial, leprosy seems to be related 

 pathogenetically to the bacillus discovered by Hansen, 

 B. lepra. It may, therefore, be safer to associate 

 the Filaria with chyluria, elephantiasis, soft tumi- 

 faction of the inguinal glands, haematochyluria, 



canal of that insect. Is it possible that the mosquito 

 is instrumental in introducing the worm into the 

 capillary system of men and other animals, whence 

 it passes into the lymphatics, where it finds a lodg- 

 ment ? That it is not injured by the poison 

 peculiar to the mosquito is proved by its passing 

 alive and continuing its developmental changes in the 

 body of the mosquito. It must also be remembered 

 that Filarice have been found in diseased conditions 

 of the human body alike in the East and West Indies., 



