236 
FILARIA MEDINENSIS. 
warned, made use of the water from these marshes, either for 
washing, bathing, or drinking; that, on their return, they 
came by the customary route, which passes through the 
Feira de Santa Anna, S. Jose, Coite, &c.; that there was 
then a tradition of the guinea-worm’s being found in the 
marsh both of S. Jose and Pojuca, the former of which they 
passed by, halting at the latter; that, having there no other 
water, they used that of the marsh, but only for drinking, 
having been warned against using it for washing, but for 
washing only, as it was in that way, and in that alone, it 
was said, that the guinea-worm found entrance into the 
human body ; but that he is ready to swear that, in his own 
case and that of his companions, it did not enter the skin in 
the act of washing, for none of them ever handled or stepped 
in the water, but only drank it, and this alone they accuse 
as the cause of their sufferings ; that some of his companions 
began complaining many months after the journey, he him¬ 
self at the end of a year; that he has no recollection of any 
other but those two convoys suffering from the disease, these 
two being the only ones passing through the district in the 
time of the inundation, after the first rains, and that he is of 
opinion that the Dracunculus makes its appearance only 
during the first rains after a drought; since that time he is 
aware of no other case of the parasite occurring in other 
individuals. 
2. Francisco du African said he was by tradition aware 
that the guinea-worm exists in several of the marshes along 
the road of Jacuipe, naming those of S. Jose and Pojuca ; he 
confirms the fact of their having only drunk, and in no other 
way made use of the water of Pojuca; that this water ran in 
a small stream from a dam, formerly dry, but then filled and 
overflowing from the heavy rains; that every one told them 
not to wash in water holding the guinea-worm, but that he, 
having already some knowledge of that animal, had told his 
companions not even to drink of it, as it was a popular delu- 
tion that it entered the human body only by the skin in 
washing, and that if they did drink it they should first boil 
or strain it, as the animalcule was too small to show any 
sign of its presence in such half-stagnant water. 
3. Verissimo Barboza d’Oliveira suffered from the guinea- 
worm in 1850, and said he caught the disease in 1849, in a 
journey by way of Jacuipe, in company of the above-named 
people ; he confirms, in all points, the preceding narratives, 
that they halted at the pond of Pojuca, four leagues distant 
from the Feira de Santa Anna; that it was generally sus¬ 
pected that there existed at that place the guinea-worm, as 
