Dlt. CHISHOLM ON THE MALIS DliACUNCULUS. 659 
guinea-worm occurred in the 88th regiment in September, 1800, 
at Cowlabah ; that the second case occurred in October ; that 
on the 8th of this month the regiment was removed to the fort 
of Bombay, which is said to be partly surrounded by a wet ditch ; 
that two cases appeared in November; that the regiment sailed 
from Bombay on the 9th December, and arrived at Point de 
Galle, off the island of Ceylon, on the 29th, a situation high and 
healthy; that six cases occurred during this voyage ; that in the 
month of February only two cases occurred in eight companies 
of the regiment in their voyage along the coast of Malabar ; that 
in the month of March, the same portion of the regiment being 
still at sea, 103 new cases of the disease appeared ; that during 
the month of April, in the voyage from Bombay to Judda, on 
the coast of the Red Sea, 1G0 cases were in the sick list of the 
disease ; that in May only eight new cases occurred ; and that 
in this month the Indian army landed at Kopur: the obvious in- 
ference from all these premises, I imagine, is, either that the 
embryos of the worm penetrated through the skin, and lodged 
under it, or, what is infinitely more probable, that the ova of the 
dracuncule were received into the stomachs of the men at Bom- 
bay with the water which they drank; that they mixed with 
the chyle, and entered into the blood in the living state, and 
finally were deposited in the cellular membrane and interstices 
of the muscles, where they were hatched, and produced living 
insects. Thus the process of evolution observed the same order, 
and nearly the same time, as at Point Saline, stated in the pre- 
ceding part of this paper. My ingenious friend has, without 
intending it, deduced the same result (see Edinburgh Medical 
and Surgical Journal , vol. i, p. 284). The observation of the 
natives, and the remarks ofM. Dubois, a respectable and learned 
missionary, in his letter on this subject to Dr. Anderson, the 
physician-general, are immediately in point, and, by their coin- 
cidence with the history of the epidemic at Point Saline, furnish 
- a very remarkable elucidation of my proposition, founded on 
that history. “ When this disorder (which prevails all over this 
district, as well as many others in the Carnatic and Maclura, 
to within the distance of one or two days’ journey from the 
sea coast) breaks out, it is sometimes epidemic ; so that I 
have often seen seen villages in which more than half the inha- 
bitants were affected by it at the same time. Although it appears 
at every season of the year, yet it more generally breaks out in the 
months of December, January , and February. It is then that it 
becomes general in many cantons. Admitting that water has 
no share in their formation, it will not be easy to explain how 
the inhabitants of a village, who drink water from one well , are 
