Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1876 — The Guinea-Worm. [ARTICLE]

The Guinea-Worm.

One of the ugly parasitic t qjat find a congenial home in the flesh of men and anifiials is the Nilaria> metftenais, popularly called, the Guinea-worm. It, is indigenous in certaifi Hot countries, as in Abyssinia, Upper Egypt, Seaegahand other parts of Africa, India, Persia,,Gentrai Asia arid the Islahu of Curacoa. The only specimens that fied were impregnated females; but iv is supposed that the little Tank-wbftnkof India are the. larval form, of ,the. Filaria. The adult animal is sleiider and cylindrical, of an opaque, milk-whitecblor, about one-ninth of an inch in diarueter andfrom six inches to four feet in length. The manner in which, the worm;enters the human .bojly is not Renown;. but' the probability is; that, While still ver/fouhg and minute, it penetrated the skip; ill is related by Carter that fifty school children in Bombay Went to bathe in a certain pond, and twenty-opepf the number afterward suffered from the parasite, some' of them being attacked' by four or flvdz' Natives, who are in the habit of going,barefoot and of frequently -entering the water, are more subject to its attacks, than.. Are Europeans. After entering the body, the parasite remains imbedded in the tfSAue, in a more or less quiescent cqnditiqn, until it has fully matured, which takes from eight weeks to two years. It tnerf ap proaches tfle surface, creatiqj by jts.presence an ulcer, which breaks spontaneously in a few days. Through thexoiiening thus made, the worm, if undisturbed, will ej ect its yobfig. As two of three tindties of the anterior end how protrude, the. 1 parasite can be easily drawn out, by nulling gently on the end; and winding R around a small stick; or a little Foil pf linen., 'fhe process of extractiqn is ,a protracted ope, as drily a small’portion" of’ the ifroiih'can , bedfawn. opit . daily. It, is: necessary to use grdat, care not to tear the animal, as any part left in the flesh is; apt -ta induce violent inflammation, fever apjiptherpnjurious symptoms. The Guinea-worm oftenest occurs! in the legs or feet,- although it hap, been found ih the tongue,” iri’ the layetstof the mesentery behind- liver, and -qmier the conjunctiva of the eye. It is stated by one medical authority that in 172-cises it appeared 124 times in the feet»-tyirty-three times in the Jegs, eleven times in the .thighs,-twice in the' handfe lhA twice elsewhere. As njany,ps .fifty worms have been reported in a single t person. Sometimes the fever and pain occasioned, by its presence is very severp. It has been known to result in death. Ori the other hand, it occasionally induces nosttrticufamiliar to: the ancients. • Jtnhas .tieen argued that the “fiery serpents’’which plagued the Israelites dlihng their * sojourn in the wilderness were ’npqf other than these parasites, which, in breaking out, cause so milch heat' arid'aiigttish. They are indigenous to the, ceUtraUmd eastern portion of Arabia Petrsea; and it is thought that, while travbrsfing this district, the Israelites may hayc i« en at " tacaed by them, and, from, ignorance of the proper treatment, suffered' the great mortality that .mentixmod in ttya ures as happening within the'region.— Chicago TnTnme. _ - ( “ 3 !(i —Johnny Francis. ’ of Hiiliftii; aged nine, is a little. hero who has saved: the name has Aden eent tothA Roviti Humane Society —An Englisliman. who dqpg'through farmins, and makes it pay, says he always feeds his land before it is bun it before- it is weary, and weeds, it,, Jiffftfe it is foul. - —The poet Whittier has reached his sixty-ninth year, and gtows fatoni'tender and grand ia his mwbM-Wi W rip* ll3 his intellect. . ' . f.. ~,.u „