623 



NEMA THELMINTHES 



anal papillae, and unequal spicules. Females longer than males, 

 with vulva situate anteriorly near the mouth. 



Synonyms.— Fileraria Rudolphi, 1809 ; Filaire Lee, 1840 ; and some 

 misprints. 



Type. — F. martis Gmelin, 1790. 



Species.— jp. hancrofti Cobbold, 1877; (• ) demarquayi Manson, 

 1895. 



Some years ago the genus Filaria contained a large number of 

 species parasitic in man, but the following genera have definitely 

 been separated from Filaria: Acanthocheilonema, Dtro filaria, 

 Dracunculus, Onchocerca, and Hamularia. At the present time 

 there are only three species known to be human parasites, which 

 are referred to the genus Filaria — viz., F. hancrofti Cobbold, 

 1877; F. ozzardi Manson, 1897; and F. inermis Grassi, 1888; in 

 addition to the embryonic forms included in the collective group 

 (Microfilaria) and the immature forms in the collective group 

 (A gamo filaria). There are, however, a number of spurious or 

 doubtful forms scattered throughout medical literature and de- 

 scribed as human parasites which must be eliminated from the 

 genus, and these are : — 



1. Filaria (?) hominis oris Leidy, 1850. — This probably belongs to the 

 Mermithidae, and may have been a mermis accidentally taken into the child's 

 mouth while eating, say, an apple, because it had an obtuse posterior 

 extremity with a recurved hook. 



2. Filaria (?) ^g'i^as Prout, 1902. — Two embryonic ^^ana/ structures 220 to 

 340 /X by 8 to 12 found with rounded head and tapering tail ending bluntly, 

 no sheath; stained readily with fuchsin. Low thinks that these might be 

 contaminations — i.e., insect hairs; Looss thinks that they may be cast skins, 

 and as Stiles has also adopted this view, the parasite may perhaps be elimin- 

 ated. Recently Leiper has considered it to be a stained fungoid growth. 



3. N ematoideum tracheale Cobbold, 1864. 

 The following can certainly be eliminated: — 



4. Filaria (?) restiformis Leidy, 1880, as this is Agamomeris restiformis, 

 and belongs to the Mermithidae. 



5. Filaria (?) cystica. Stilts believes this to he merely Oxyur is vermicular is; 

 it mav be the emb'-vo of a Filaria. 



6. Filaria (?) niellyi is Rhabditis niellyi. 



7. Filaria (?) zebra Mon Grand, 1852, is said to be a fibrinous clot, and 

 therefore a species fictitia. 



The following may have to be eliminated : — 



8. Filaria (?) kilimaro Kolb, 1898. — These consist of several female speci- 

 mens once found free in the abdominal cavity of a fallen Kitu warrior. Oral 

 papillaft are said to have been like Dracunculus medinensis . 



They were 10 to 20 centimetres in length, and 0-5 to i millimetre in diameter, 

 white, and resembled Gordius aquaticus in general appearance. 



With these Kolb classified free-living worms, and therefore doubts are held 

 as to the exact zoological determinations of the species recorded. 



9. Filaria (?) romanorum orientalis Sarcani, 1888. — Observed in the blood of 

 a Roumanian woman; i millimetre long by 0*3 millimetre broad, with intestine 

 and generative apparatus developed ; believed by some to be an adult thread- 

 worm. 



The uncertain species are: — 



1. Filaria Species (?) Cholodkowsky, 1896. — Found in whitlow-like tumours 

 on the fingers of peasants in the Twer Government. 



2. Filaria Species (?) Prout, 1902. 



