Fig. 277.—Anterior extremity of Guinea worm, showing dorsal and ventral lips, one lateral and two submedian papillæ and the lateral line. (After Leuckart.)
The male is almost unknown. Leiper in an experimentally infected monkey found two males 22 mm. long, one from the psoas muscle, the other from the connective tissue behind the œsophagus.
Occurrence.—Filaria medinensis has been known since the most remote period. The “fiery serpents” that molested the Israelites by the Red Sea, and which Moses mentioned, were probably filariæ. The term Δρακὁντιον occurs in Agatharchides (140 B.C.). Galen called the disorder dracontiasis; the Arabian authors were well acquainted with the worm. It is found not only in Medina or Arabia, but also in Persia, Turkestan, Hindustan. The Guinea worm is also widely distributed in Africa, on the coasts as well as in the interior. It occurs in the Fiji Islands. It was carried to South America by negro slaves, but is said at the present time to exist in only quite a few places (British Guiana, Brazil [Bahia]); it is also observed in mammals (ox, horse, dog, leopard, jackal [Canis lapuster], etc.).
Fig. 278.—Dracunculus medinensis. a, anterior extremity seen end on; O, mouth; P, papillæ; b, female reduced more than half; c, larvæ enlarged. (After Claus.)
Dracunculus medinensis in its adult stage lives in superficial ulcers on the body surface; it is seen most frequently on the lower extremities, more especially in the region of the ankle, but it also occurs in other parts of the body—on the trunk, scrotum, perineum, on the upper extremities, and in the eyelids and tongue. Sometimes there is only one ulcer and one worm, but more commonly several. It attacks man without distinction of race, age or sex. It is observed most frequently during the months of June to August.
Life history.[300]—When about a year old the worm seeks the surface of the body and produces there a thickening as big as a florin. Over this a vesicle forms which eventually ruptures, and at the bottom of the ulcer can be seen a hole from which a part of the worm may project. On bathing the sides of the ulcer with water, a drop of fluid, at first clear then milky, exudes. This contains numerous larvæ. In other cases a thin tube an inch long is prolapsed (through the vulva). This is probably the uterus, but the mechanism of parturition is not clearly known. It lasts for about a fortnight. An abundant supply of larvæ can be got by placing wet compresses on a fresh ulcer. In a few hours a mass of larvæ is obtained.