THE 
LIBR ARY | 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. L1I. 
No. 617. 
MAY, 1879. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 293. ' 
Communications and Cases. 
REMARKS ON THE FI LARI A MEDINENSIS, 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. 
(Concluded from p. 238.) 
Part V. 
A word or two in regard to the origin among us of the 
Guinea-worm. Has this parasite been brought among us 
along with the black slaves, or did it previously exist in the 
country, becoming only more frequent after the introduction 
of the slave trade, or, at least, after the establishment of 
maritime intercourse between the two continents ? The fact 
of the parasite being endemic in one locality of this province 
does not necessarily exclude the idea of its having been 
imported in the time of the slave trade; it might have 
become acclimated there, as some authors believe it did in 
other parts of America into which blacks w r ere imported 
from the coast of Africa. In the thesis above referred to 
Dr. Victorino Pereira asserts positively that the parasite was 
hi. 23 
