THE BOT-FLY OF MAN. 155 



Tempere, have shown themselves capable of increasing in the 

 macerations that I have prepared ; one only, the Rhizosolenia 

 graceUe7iia that M. Bergon has obtained from a gathering recently 

 made at Trepart, has shown itself refractory ; but I ought to add 

 that this want of success is not without a cause, for these 

 Rhizosolenas arrived in an advanced stage of putrefaction, with an 

 endochrome completely granulated ; whilst the numerous Bid- 

 dulphias which were found mingled with them, less affected by the 

 poisonous gas resulting from the decomposing matters, increased 

 and multiplied without difficulty. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII. 



Fig. 1. — F., Flask containing distilled water ; F. , Cultivating vessel ; 

 >Si'. , Siphon conveying distilled water into V. ; aS'., Tube 

 which permits the siphon t(,> act. 



,, 2. — _E^, Dark Chamber for cultivating the Diatoms ;/./., Cultures ; 

 F, Glass cylinders ; Gt^ Gas-burner ; U, Water-tap; W, Gas- 

 tap ; 0, Indicator ; ikf, Pressure-regulator. 



tlbe Bot»=jfl^ of flDan. 



A WRITER in Insect Life for September states that in Hon- 

 duras and other Central American Countries there is a fly 

 that deposits its ova in the skin of human beings. The 

 naked Indians have a few, but the whites, who wear shirts, have 

 ten times as many. Mr. David Logan, now in Massachusetts, 

 passed about twenty years of his life in tropical forests hunting for 

 mahogany, and has had at least a hundred of these parasites in 

 different parts of the body at the same time. On one occasion he 

 had eighteen of the maggots squeezed out of his back. The back 

 and shoulders are especially subject to the attacks, although they 

 are not limited to those parts. Mr. Logan was once attacked in 

 the upper lip. 



The first evidence of the presence of the larva in the skin is the 

 appearance of a small furuncle, not painful, but giving the victim a 

 sensation of uneasiness. Close inspection shows that there is a 

 minute orifice in the middle of the swelling. When first detected 

 the larva is of about the size of a pin's head. If not dislodged 

 for a period of five or six weeks, the grub will attain to the length 

 of an inch. The treatment employed by the natives is to cover 

 the infested parts with a piece of tobacco leaf just over the per- 

 foration of the integument, and soon afterwards the maggot can be 

 forced out. It is probable that the species concerned is the Der- 

 matohia noxialis^ commonly known to Spanish Americans as Ver- 

 macaque. 



