A case of filaria sanguinis hominis nocturna / by Charles Williams.

  • Williams, Charles, 1827-1907.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of filaria sanguinis hominis nocturna / by Charles Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    r. young into the lymph-stream ; along this they are carried to the lymphatic glands, as they are only about Tr5Vir of an inch in diameter, no broader than many of the lymph corpuscles that accompany them, they have no difficulty in entering and traversing the minute vessels into which the afferent lymphatic divides. For the same reason, and by virtue of its vigorous movements, it passes the parenchyma of the gland, and emerg- ing into the efferent vessels, is borne along the current until, having traversed gland after gland and their connecting vessels, it finds itself in the thoracic duct, and finally in the blood itself. A point of remarkable interest has been observed in con- nection with this nematode embryo. If the blood of a man in whom these parasites exist be submitted to microscopical examination, it will be found that during the hours of the day, unless under peculiar circumstances, they are entirely absent, that at about six or seven o'clock in the evening they begin to appear in the blood, gradually as night advances their numbers increase until midnight, when the number reaches its maximum, and then as morning approaches they become fewer, by eight or nine in the morning they will have entirely disappeared. From nine a.m. to six p.m. very rarely is it possible to procure a single specimen, whereas at midnight as many as 120, 170, and 260 severally have been noticed under separate slides by such observers as Dr. Myers, of Formosa, and Dr. Patrick Manson, late of Amoy.* In a case of Filarial Hematuria-Chyluria, admitted into the London Hospital in 1882, Dr. Stephen Mackenziet tried the ollowing experiment: he reversed the usual hour of move- ment and rest ■ that is, he made the man remain up all night, and go to bed during the day. His meal times were corres- pondingly altered; his breakfast was taken at 10 p.m., his * The blood of one-third of the dogs in China is infested with filariEe, and the same law of migration has been found to obtain in them, t Pathological Society's Transactions, vol. 33, 1882.