Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1877 — Insect Larvx in the Human Body. [ARTICLE]

Insect Larvx in the Human Body.

A curious account of the occurrence of the lame of the Bot-fly (OMruTe) in the cellular membrane of the human body wap presented to the Detroit meeting of the American Association for the Ad. vancement of Science, by Dr. Charles H. Alien, of Chicago. The victim attacked by the parasites was a boy ten years of age, who hat* spent the summer of 1871 at Charlottesville, in Prince Edvard’s Island, and when there had been in the habit of bathing in a pond in a pasture wherefa large number of cattle were grazing. While his body was exposed during bathing, the species of Bot-fly which infest cattle Is supposed to have deposited her seas beneath the akin m March, 1872, Dr. Allen was called to *^ BOd Md 1 feCbk U Dd

nights, occasioned by “sensations of pricking, crawling and biting,” which had been Intensified during the previous ten days. Ou examination of the parts thus affected, a yellowish line was observed, extending from the left to the right side of the front body, while a leA distinct line extended up the right front chest to the right sub-maxillary gland, over which the cellular tissue was puffed out. Above and behind the right ear was a swelling the size of two peas laid side by side. The boy affirmed that the itching sensations had followed the exact course defined by the lines, and terminating in the swelling. On opening the little tumor, a light veltow serum flowed from the wound, and by pressure a larva was forced out. Two days • later a second larva was taken from a similar swelling which had developed nt a point directly over the spine, and an inch or two below the shoulder-blades. A dav or two after, a third tumor, marking its presence by irritating sensations. was found on the top of the head. The hair was cut over it, but, the incision being delayed, the swelling was found on the following day to have moved an inch. Lana number three was then removed from it. Some days further on, the boy suffered unusually severe irritation in the left wrist, where a fourth swelling was visible. The incision was postponed until the next dav, for the purpose of continued observation, when, at an early hour in the morning, to relieve the misery of the child, the lancet was brought into requisition. The swelling was now gone from the wrist, but a discolored spot about the left elbow betrayed the wltereaboute of the larvae, which was thus dragged forth to the light. . Two of the larvse were sent to Dr. Hagen, of Harvard University, who declared them to agree with the figures and descriptions given by Dr. Brauer, of Vienna. of the first larval state of a European species of the Bot-fly named Hypoderma Diana. The other two larvae were sent to Dr. Brauer, of Vienna, who confirmed the opinion of Dr. Hagen that they Itelonged to the species Hypoderma Diana, and were in the first stage of larval life. In answer to an inquiir of a prominent physician in Prince Edward’s Island, it was ascertained that two cases of patients suffering from the attack of the Bot-fly had been some years ago reported in the island, but neither of them had been observed by medical men. In Tropical America instances of a species of Bot-fly laying its eggs under the skin of man have been frequently noted. A question of peculiar interest attaching to the case observed in Chicago relates to the power of motion possessed by the larvte of Oestrida. Or the three groups—the gastriculoe, and caviculoe, and thF sub-culicula — into which the Oestrida are divided, the larvse of the first two are known to move in the early stages of their existence; but entomologists have heretofore asserted that the larvse of the third group, to which the Hypoderma Diana belongs, have not the power of locomotion. The circumstances exhibited in the case under discussion show without a doubt that the larvie of the Siibenticuloe move when disturbed, and may wander very far through the cellular tissue. The first larvse had traveled a distance of thirtv inches, and the fourth at least six inches. It is remarked by Dr. Allen that, “ After these larvse had commenced locomotion they may naturally have become restless from want of air, since their respiratory apparatus is situated in the hind part of the body, and the lucid spot on the 4Wp*of the swelling is evidently the channel through which the air may enter the respiratory organs?’— Chicago Tribune.