Adult unknown, length from 32 to 53 mm. Maximum diameter 560 µ to 640 µ. Head no cephalic cone. Mouth small, circular, surrounded by six papillæ (two small latero-median and four sub-median). The larger papillæ are 24 µ from base to tip. Excretory pore about 0·5 mm. from head. Anus 64 µ to 128 µ from tip. Cuticle fine striæ near anus, occasionally elsewhere. Lateral lines clearly marked. Œsophagus 2·5 to 2·9 mm. Rectum 200 µ long.
Habitat.—Superficial sores on the ankle of a negress, Georgia, U.S.A.
Agamofilaria palpebralis, Pace, 1867 (nec Wilson, 1844).
100 by 1·5 mm., removed from a cyst in the left upper eyelid of a boy by Pace, in Palermo.
Agamofilaria oculi humani, v. Nordmann, 1832.
Syn.: Filaria lentis, Diesing, 1851.
The sexless Nematodes observed in the lens of the human eye were termed Filaria oculi humani. Only three cases are known. v. Nordmann observed very small round worms in the lens of a man and woman with cataract, and Gescheidt once found three specimens in the lens of a woman similarly affected.
The demonstration of nematode-like formations in the vitreous remains uncertain even when movements are observed, and when they cannot be extracted and examined microscopically the doubt may occur that one may have mistaken the remains of the hyaloid artery for a worm, which it resembles in form, size and colour; the slightest movement of the eye also causes it to move so that it simulates a living organism.
Accordingly it would be more correct to exclude all the cases known only ophthalmoscopically (Quadri, 1857; Fano, 1868; Schoeler, 1875; Eversbusch, 1891). There then remains only one positive case, described by Kühnt in 1891. In this case it was possible to follow the gradual growth of the parasite for some time, and the worm, which measured only 0·38 mm. in length, was finally extracted.