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FILARIASIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 339 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FILARIASIS , the name of a disease due to the nematode Filaria sanguinis honainis. A milky See also:

appearance of the urine, due to the presence of a substance like chyle, which forms a See also:clot, had been observed from See also:time to time, especially in tropical and subtropical countries; and it was proved by Dr Wucherer of See also:Bahia, and by Dr See also:Timothy See also:Lewis, that this See also:peculiar See also:condition is uniformly associated with the presence in the See also:blood of See also:minute See also:eel-like See also:worms, visible only under the See also:microscope, being the embryo forms of a Filaria (see See also:NEMATODA). Sometimes the See also:discharge of See also:lymph takes See also:place at one or more points of the See also:surface of the See also:body, and there is in other cases a condition of naevoid See also:elephantiasis of the scrotum, or lymph-scrotum. More or less of blood may occur along with the chylous fluid in the urine. Both the chyluria and the presence of filariae in the blood are curiously intermittent; it may happen that not a single filaria is to be seen during the daytime, while they swarm in the blood at See also:night, and it has been ingeniously shown by Dr S. See also:Mackenzie that they may be made to disappear if the patient sits up all night, reappearing while he sleeps through the See also:day. See also:Sir P. See also:Manson proved that mosquitoes imbibe the embryo filariae from the blood of See also:man; and that many of these reach full development within the See also:mosquito, acquiring their freedom when the latter resorts to See also:water, where it See also:dies after depositing its eggs. Mosquitoes would thus be the intermediate See also:host of the filariae, and their introduction into the human body would be through the See also:medium of water (see PARASITIC DISEASES).

End of Article: FILARIASIS

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