642 DR. CHISHOLM ON THE MALIS DRACUNCULUS. 
tinues to prevail almost universally amongthefield negroes till the 
month of March or April; that the fever occasioned by the irri- 
tation of the worm has been in some instances extremely violent, 
attended with delirium, and other alarming symptoms ; that in 
all, the inflammation has been very considerable, and productive 
of excessive pain ; that few recovered till the expiration of six 
weeks or two months; that he has known three hundred out of 
five hundred laid up with the disease at the same time ; that the 
embryos or ova of the animal are evidently contained in the water 
of the wells, which are affected by the changes of the tide ; that 
the water in taste has a singular sweetishness, is somewhat 
muddy in the wells, but when taken out seems clear to the eye ; 
that his reasons for thinking and believing that the disease is 
caused by drinking this water, are 1st, all the field negroes, 
who alone are subject to the disease, drink of this water, and no 
other ; 2d, his domestics, who make use of rain-water, and no 
other, neverhad the disease, although, if it could be produced by 
any other cause existing in the island, they are fully as much 
exposed to it as the field negroes ; and, 3d, none of the white 
people have ever had the disease, except in one instance, and 
that person once or twice, inconsiderately or ignorantly, drank 
of the well water ; that the animalcule or embryo of the worm 
does not insinuate itself under the cutis through the pores of the 
cuticle, for none of the negroes have ever been in the habit of 
bathing in the water of the wells ; that he has every reason to 
be assured, that the animalcules or ova are taken into the sto- 
mach with the water ; and, finally, that he has frequently ex- 
amined the water with a microscope, and discovered innumerable 
animalcules in it, of a very uncommon shape. 
All the information communicated by Mr. Templeman, and 
most of that I received from Mr. Scott, I have often verified on 
the spot myself. I have examined with precision the well and 
its water of Point Saline plantation, and the various stadia of the 
progress of the worm during the epidemic season. As far as it 
was possible, by a tolerable microscope, by filtration, and other 
means, I have ascertained the existence in the water of extremely 
minute and agile animalcules of nearly the adjoined figure, and of 
innumerable white granulated substances, little more 
than perceptible even with the magnifier I used, which 
I concluded, on a comparison of the circumstances I \ / 
have stated, to be, the former the embryos, the ^ 
latter the ova of the dracunculi. Farther than this I* found 
it impossible to proceed in my investigation. More perfect in- 
struments might, no doubt, have produced more perfect evidence 
of the existence of the dracunculi in the animalcula and egg 
state. 
