LIFE-HISTOKY OF FILARIA BANCROFTI. 



363 



mature Filarice iii a blood-clot from a youug Bengalee (then 

 under Dr. G-ayer's care for scrotal disease). Without loss of 

 time Lewis followed up his ' find ' by a series of very careful 

 microscopic observations, and at once forwarded an elaborate 

 account of his work to England (Ref No. 16). Meanwhile Dr. 

 Bancroft had forwarded some specimens of his adult entozoa to 

 myself, together with some rather imperfect illustrations which 

 he had executed and caused to be engraved. Some weeks elapsed 

 before I found time to examine the worms. When at length I 

 did so, and drew up a brief account of the structure and charac- 

 ters of the parasite, I forwarded it to the ' Lancet ' office, where, 

 by a singular coincidence, it arrived (as I understand) a few days 

 after the date of the receipt of Lewis's communication. Thus 

 our accounts of the same parasite, under different names, were 

 published almost simultaneously (Ref. No. 17). If our illustra- 

 tions be compared it will readily be seen that they refer to one 

 and the same entozoon. 



I may observe that Dr. Beale (having reproduced my figures 

 and description in the fourth edition of one of his works) had 

 thought it necessary to suggest an amount of ignorance on my 

 part which, had I really displayed it, must certainly have been very 

 reprehensible. Dr. Beale, mixing up two totally distinct parasites 

 {Filaria sanguinolenta and F. sanguinis Tiominis) together, has 

 sought to maiie it appear that I was unaware of the previous dis- 

 covery by Lewis of the latter worm in the person of the former 

 (Ref. No. 18). Dr. Le Roy de Mericourt has also very courteously 

 reproduced my figures in connexion with the editorial remarks 

 appended by him to the French version of Dr. Silva Lima's memoir 

 (Ref No. 19). 



Here I am naturally led on to observe that notwithstanding 

 the fairly exhaustive character of Silva Lima's memoir, very little 

 account has been taken, either by Lima himself or by other 

 writers, of Manson's earlier investigations. This need not excite 

 astonishment, since few people can have had access to the journal 

 in which Manson's original papers appeared. The ' Customs' 

 Gazette ' is little known ; and but for the republication of Man- 

 son's writings in one of our professional periodicals they might 

 long have remained unnoticed on the Continent (Ref No. 20) . 

 Even now I cannot give the precise date of Manson's earliest 

 paper ; but in his Report published in the spring of 1877 (that is, 

 in No. 13 of the ' Customs' Gazette ') he refers to earlier papers 



