Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/793

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FILARIA MAGALHÃESI
741

TABLE OF LEADING DIMENSIONS OF FILARIÆ

  Filaria
bancrofti
Filaria perstans Filaria
ozzardi
  Mm. Mm. Mm.
Length 85 to 90 70 to 80 81
Greatest thickness 0·20 to 0·26 0·120 0·210
Diameter of head 0·055 0·070 0·050
Diameter of neck 0·049 0·054 0·039
Distance from head—      
(1) Of vaginal outlet 0·710 0·600 0·710
(2) Of ovarian opening 0·920 ? 0·850
Distance from tail of anal papilla 0·225 0·145 0·230
Termination of tail Blunt, circular,
not bulbous.
Slightly bulbous;
covered by thickened
cuticle prolonged
into two
triangular appendages.
Bulbous
cuticle not
thickened.

Filaria magalhãesi, R. Blanch., 1895

Professor Magalhăes describes two sexually mature filarial hæmatozoa, male and female, which were found lying in the left ventricle of the heart of a child in Rio de Janeiro. No information was received as to the nature of the disease of which the child died, nor had any examination of the blood been made during life. The parasites were cylindrical, capillary, opalescent, white, uniform in thickness except, where the body tapered towards the tail and at the club-shaped oral end. The mouth was simple, circular, unarmed; the cuticle marked with fine transverse striations. The female worm measured 155 mm. in length by 0·7 mm. in diameter, the male 83 mm. in length by 0·4 mm. in diameter. The tail of the latter was provided with four pairs of preanal and four pairs of postanal papillæ, and two spicules. Manifestly this parasite is specifically distinct from F. bancrofti and the other blood worms described above. Nothing is known of its life-history, nor of the associated pathology.