A. C. Parsons 
365 
in size and measurement from the same part in the male. We 
were not successful in our attempts to obtain the tail extremity of a 
female. In the middle of the worm the cuticular markings are more 
sharply defined and wider apart than in the male. Ftilleborn rather 
happily compares the appearance of these cuticular striae to that 
of the wooden bands or hoops round barrels. He also lays great stress 
on the fact that Prout’s female specimen did not apparently possess 
the same pronounced cuticular thickenings that his own specimen 
showed, and is rather inclined to believe that his own specimens con¬ 
stitute a new species. This seems improbable in view of the fact that 
his description of the male worm differs but very little from Prout’s 
description of the male. Towards the extremities these cuticular striae 
in the female become finer and more closely set, and near the vulva 
they almost cease to exist. At 0'65 mm. from the head the genital 
pore opens without any marked protuberance of its lips. The vagina 
passes directly backwards as a thin walled canal, but shows a slight 
retort shaped dilatation just before its narrow aperture. The uterine 
tubules have thin cuticular walls with curious spiral markings not 
unlike the spiral vessels of vegetable morphology. Embryos were found 
at various stages of development in these tubules:—at one point coiled 
within the egg-shell; elsewhere partially coiled and distending the egg¬ 
shell almost to rupture; while in terminal portions of the tubule they 
were quite stretched out. These latter, like the embryos found in the 
fluid of the tumours, possess no sheath, a point on which all observers 
Filaria volvulus $ . 
Table of comparative measurements. 
'Length 
Greatest 
Diameter 
Distance of genital 
Author 
of worm 
diameter 
of head 
pore from head 
Leuekart 
60—70 cm. 
— 
— 
— 
Labadie-Lagrave 
and Deguy 
25 cm. 
0-15 mm. 
(immature worm) 
— 
— 
Vedy 
18 cm. 
— 
— 
— 
Prout 
16 in. or 40 cm. 
•36 mm. 
0-04 mm. 
— 
Fulleborn 
— 
•33 mm. 
At -005 from *55 mm. 
mouth = -065 mm. 
Parsons 
4 in. or 10 cm. 
0-3 mm. 
— 
0-65 mm. 
Brumpt 
— 
— 
— 
0-760 mm. 
Braun 
60—70 cm. 
0'36 mm. 
0-04 mm. 
— 
* The measurements here recorded relate to the length of portions only of the female 
worm: moreover many of the figures must be taken with considerable reserve. 
