Filariasis and elephantiasis in Fiji ; being a report to the London School of Tropical Medicine.

  • Manson-Bahr, Philip Heinrich, Sir, 1881-
Date:
1912
    that he gives no description of his methods, nor of the quantity of blood examined. American investigators have been busy in the PhiUppines. Ashburn and Craigi" " found a microfilaria in the blood of nine natives. Phalen and Nichols'^ " found among 933 Filipinos 2-6 per cent, infected, and gave a map of the distribution of filaria nocturna in those islands based on the examination of 6,604 individuals. Diesing" (1909) reports a case of filariasis in New Guinea. From New Caledonia the records are scanty. Lang and Noci" fovind filaria nocturna four times in 117 examinations made during a residence of twenty years in that island. Nicolas" records a case of chyluria occurring there. The Solomon Islands and New Hebrides have been too lately investi- gated by medical men for any extensive series of blood examinations to have been made. As will be seen later, a certain small proportion of the natives of the former were found to harbour microfilaria nocturna; on the other hand over half showed signs of recent malaria, which is very prevalent in both groups. I met with a case of filariasis in a New Hebridean. I have been assured by observant travellers that elephantiasis is almost unknown in the Solomon group. The value of "these various observations would have been very much enhanced had the workers adopted the same methods and specified the time at which their blood examinations were made, and also the quantity of blood scrutinized. It is to be hoped that in future some uniform system of observation will be adhered to. Technique. The method of preparing blood-films described by Manson in his " Tropical Diseases," and the method of measuring definite quantities of blood as described by Low, are those I employed throughout. I found it simple, quick and reliable. The standard quantity has been 16 o. mm. of blood and has been strictly adhered to. This measurement is of use in accurately determining the periodicity and in conducting observations as to the actual number of parasites present in the circulation. The slides were examined immediately after being dehaemoglobinized. It was found that if the slides were left undehaemoglobinized for more than twenty-four hours the haemoglobin became fixed, and examination corre- spondingly more difficult. A certain number of each batch of slides were stained, without being fixed, in dilute carbol fuchsin; others, after fixing in alcohol and ether, were stained with haematoxylin with the view of determining the minute characteristics of any microfilariae that might be present. I may mention here that upon one occasion in making a cons?cutive series of slides from the same patient, a consider- able variation in the number of microfilariae present was noticed, showing that they are not uniformly distributed throughout the peripheral blood- stream (Appendix II.). A number of observations were made to deter- mine whether the act of squeezing the finger to obtain a larger supply of blood was responsible in any way for this variability in the numl)er of microfilariae. No influence of this description could be recognized. CoisrcLusroNS. In the course of my investigations. I have been enabled to confirm many of the observations of previous workers on filariasis. My piincipal work on this helminthiasis, however, has been directed more especially
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