Chap. XI.] PAKASITIC WOKMS. 



397 



cellular tissue under the skin, is well known in the north 

 of the island, but rarely found in the damper districts of 

 the south and west. In Ceylon, as elsewhere, the natives 

 attribute its occurrence to drinking the waters of par- 

 ticular wells; but this belief is inconsistent with the 

 fact that its lodgment in the human body is almost 

 always effected just above the ankle. This shows that 

 the minute parasites are transferred to the skin of the 

 leg from the moist vegetation bordering the footpaths 

 leading to wells. At this period the creatures are very 

 small, and the process of insinuation is painless and 

 imperceptible. It is only when they attain to consider- 

 able size, a foot or more in length, that the operation of 

 extracting them is resorted to, when exercise may have 

 given rise to inconvenience and inflammation. 



These pests in all probability received their popular 

 name of Guinea-worms, from the narrative of Bruno 

 or Braun, a citizen and surgeon of Basle, who about the 

 year 1611 made several voyages to that part of the 

 African coast, and on his return published, amongst 

 other things, an account of the local diseases. 1 But 

 Linschoten, the Dutch navigator, had previously ob- 

 served the same worms at Ormus in 1584, and they are 

 thus described, together with the method of removing 

 them, in the English version of his voyage. 



" There is in Ormus a sickenesse or common plague 

 of wormes, which growe in their legges, it is thought 

 that they proceede of the water that they drink. These 

 wormes are like unto lute strings, and about two or 

 three fadomes longe, which they must plucke out and 

 winde them aboute a straw or a feather, everie day some 



In De Bry's Collect, vol. i. p. 49. 



