MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 115 



credited by Osborne (Insects Affecting Domestic Animals, Washington, 1906) 

 to all Americans lietween Patagonia and Canada but the territory within 

 which the greatest damage occurs is within tropical and subtropical belt. 

 Professor Petit of the Michigan Agricultural College informs me that he has 

 not met with the insect in this state. 



The fly is a small insect less than half an inch in length. The eggs are 

 deposited in decaying matter or a wound, at least three or four hundred 

 being deposited by a single female within a few moments, the eggs hatch in 

 a few hours. The larvre or maggot is a whitish, footless grub, slender and 

 quite active, burrowing into the tissue of the affected animal or into the mass 

 of putrid flesh or decaying matter that furnishes it food. When mature 

 they escape from the mass of matter or wound in which they have developed, 

 and bury themselves in the ground to transform. 



This past summer while on a trip through the western states I was enabled 

 to follow one of these cases of human myiasis which occurred in the i^ractice 

 of Dr. R. N. Looney of Prescott, Arizona, during my visit there. The patient, 

 a miner, Italian, 36 years of age, was working about the top of a mine shaft 

 when a fly entered his nose. He knocked it out and paid no further attention 

 to it until two days later (June 15. 1909) a terriljle frontal headache developed 

 which caused him to consult a physician. Later a serosangniuous foul 

 smelling discharge developed. 



A diagnosis of myiasis narium was made and the nose treated with swabs 

 of pure chloroform. Several maggots came away. The following day 

 the operation was repeated with the same result. His cure was uneventful, 

 twenty-five maggots were removed altogether. 



Yount (Journ. Am. Med. Ass'n, 1907) records 23 cases occurring in Arizona 

 in one year (1905). Eighteen showed nasal myiasis and five myiasis of 

 some other site. The mortality for all was 15 per cent. For the nasal cases 

 alone the mortality was over 22 per cent. Certainly enough to demonstrate 

 the serious nature of the disease. Over 200 maggots have been removed 

 from some patients. 



The prevention of the disease is easier than the cure. Patients with 

 wounds, abrasions or catarrhal conditions of the nose and ears should be 

 looked after. In all parts of Arizona the treatment of these cases was about 

 the same, chloform differing only in its method of administration being the 

 drug of choice, varying in strength from 25 per cent in oil to the pure drug. 

 The maggots should be searched for immediately afterwards and removed 

 with forceps. 



In Michigan, maggots of various flies occasionally attack wounds in animals. 

 I have taken as many as thirty from the wing of a domesticated swan. 



Occasionally ulcerated wounds, as advanced carcinoma of the breast, are 

 infected. It is ])ro])able that the maggot is introduced directly as in apply- 

 ing oatmeal or cornmeal poultice. I was recently informed of several maggots 

 being removed from a sealed package of one of the wtII known breakfast 

 foods. 



Lnder proper surgical treatment such an accident would l)e impossible 

 I have never heard of maggots entering wounds in a well regulated hospital. 

 1105 Jefi'erson Ave., Ea.st Detroit, Mich., April 1, 1909. 



