THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. LII. 
No. 614. 
FEBRUARY, 1879. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 290. ' 
Communications and Cases. 
REMARKS ON THE FILARIA MEDENENSIS, OR 
GUINEA WORM; ON THE OCCURRENCE OF 
THIS PARASITE ENDEMICALLY IN THE PRO¬ 
VINCE OF BAHIA; ON ITS ENTRANCE INTO 
THE HUMAN BODY BY DRINKING WATER. 
By J. F. da Silva Lima, M.D., Officiating Physician at the 
Hospital da Caridade, Bahia. Translated from the 
Portuguese by Dr. J. L. Paterson, of Bahia, and com¬ 
municated to Professor Cobbold. 
Part I. 
So rarely, in the course of the last twenty years, have 
accidents arising from the presence of the Guinea worm been 
* met with in this province, either in hospital or private prac¬ 
tice, that it would appear that this well-known parasite, still 
very common in various tropical regions, is fast becoming 
extinct, or lingering on as a pathological curiosity. I know 
of no historical document determining with certainty at what 
period the worm first came under observation in Brazil, 
the name, however (Bieto da Costa), seeming to indi¬ 
cate its probable importation from the coast of Africa, and 
to point to the introduction of slavery into Brazil as the 
epoch of its first appearance, or, at all events, of its becoming 
more frequent or better known. 
The African blacks, as is well known, during the time of 
the slave trade, suffered far more frequently from this nema- 
toid than the rest of the population, and that, in many 
cases, so soon after their arrival in this country that it could 
LII. 
