FILA'RIA (from Lat. filvm, thread). A para site found in the blood, lymph, and other fluids of the human body. It was first seen by Demarquay, in 1863, in a fluid obtained from a galactocele, and was identified in 1866 by Wueherer, of Brazil. In 1868 Salisbury found the eggs in human urine. In 1872 T. R. Lewis found (Barite in the blood. Filaria medinensis, or Guinea worm, is found in different tissues of the bodies of negroes in Guinea, Senegal, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and India. It is from one to ten feet long, and about one-tenth of an inch wide, and causes painful tumors, blisters, or boils, and sometimes gan grene. Filaria sanguinis hominis nocturne, which is about one-seventy-fifth of an inch long, is found in the blood. It is indigenous to Africa, India, China, Australia, and Brazil, and has been found in negroes in our Southern States. The parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes, as has been demonstrated by Manson and by Low. In Cutex fastigans filaria embryos mature rapidly, after the insect has fed on the blood of a patient suffering from filariasis, and the perfect filarke are found in the head, neck, and proboscis of the mosquito. Strong, of the Chief Surgeon's Office, Division of the Philippines, has found filariasis in Iloilo. He believes that the disease will be come domesticated in the Southern States, through the return of the American soldiers.
This form of filaria is a white, opaline, hair-like worm, tapering toward the ends, which are blunt. It is found only after sundown, appearing in the blood about G P.M. A diurnal variety has been discovered by Manson in Congo negroes, but as yet only its embryo has been seen. However, the nocturnal variety is found by day in the blood of those sufferers from filariasis who work by night and sleep by day. Granville advances the theory that the appearance in the blood of this parasite is dependent upon certain conditions of the circulation and of the chyle during sleep. Filariasis is limited between the parallels of latitude 30° N. and 30° S., unless transported by some one infected within the tropic-al limits. It is found in Brazil, many of the West Indies, in Mexico, and the west coast of South America, the South Sea - Islands, Japan, Australia, and China, besides the countries already named as comprising the habitat of the Guinea worm. It is supposed to be the cause of several endemic diseased conditions, including elephantiasis ara bnm, lymph scrotum, lymph vulva, ehyluria, hx-matochyluria, and aseites. Consult: Wucher er, in Gazeta Medico da Bahia (Brazil, December, 1868) ; Lewis, in Nedieinisehes ftentralblatt, No. 43 (1877) : and Manson, The Filaria Sanguinis Hominis (London, 1883).