Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals: Including Some Account of the EctozoaCobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer)
Science
Parasites: A Treatise on the Entozoa of Man and Animals: Including Some Account of the Ectozoa
Cobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer)
Helminths; Parasites
On the 4th of January, 1878, I received from Dr Patrick Manson a
manuscript in which he announced the discovery of the larvæ of _Filaria
sanguinis hominis_ in the stomach of mosquitoes. Already, in April,
1877, Dr Bancroft had informed me of his expectation of finding that
these insects sucked up the larvæ of the Filaria whilst engaged in their
attacks on man. Dr Bancroft’s supposition was a very natural one, but
it remained for Manson to make the actual discovery of the existence of
human hæmatozoa, or parasites that had been such, within the stomach of
_Culex mosquito_. I lost no time in making the principal facts public
(‘Lancet,’ Jan. 12th, 1878). Dr Manson at the same time forwarded for
publication a record of thirty-five additional cases of hæmatozoa
occurring in Chinese subjects, together with additional particulars
of one of the cases already published in the ‘Customs Gazette.’ These
were afterwards published as separate contributions in the ‘Medical
Times and Gazette.’ Dr Manson likewise forwarded materials for a paper
entitled “Further Observations on _Filaria sanguinis hominis_.” In this
communication he gave an analysis of the cases (sixty-two in all) in
which he had observed the hæmatozoa, and he added valuable statistical
evidence as to the prevalence of Filariæ in the Amoy district, dwelling
especially on the influence of age, sex, and occupation in determining
the presence of the parasite. He also described the morbid states with
which these entozoa were commonly associated.
On the 7th of March, 1878, I formally communicated to the Linnean
Society a detailed account of Manson’s investigations relating to the
metamorphoses undergone by the Filariæ within the body of the mosquito.
In this paper Manson pointed out that the female mosquito, after
gorging itself with human blood, repairs to stagnant water for the
purpose of digesting the blood, and also for the purpose of depositing
its eggs. During this period, which lasts four or five days, the Filariæ
undergo remarkable changes. Subsequently, in a more perfect state, they
escape into the water, and in this advanced stage they are conveyed to
the human body along with the water as drink. Dr Manson persuaded a
Chinese, whose blood was previously ascertained to abound with Filariæ,
to sleep in a “mosquito house.” In the morning the gorged insects
were captured and examined under the microscope. A drop of blood from
the mosquito was found to contain 120 Filariæ, but a drop taken from
the man’s hand yielded only some thirty specimens. Further stages of
development are accomplished within the human host, ending in the sexual
maturity of the parasite. After fecundation successive swarms of embryos
are discharged by the female worm, a part of whose progeny eventually
gains access to the blood.
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