^^ 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



TAKEN FROM THE SOCIETY'S RECORDS. 



January 5, 1859. 



T. J. Whittemore, Esq., in the Chair. 



Mr. F. H. Storer read a paper on the power possessed 

 by the larvae of various common flies, of consuming, with- 

 out apparent injury to themselves, the flesh of animals 

 which have died from the effects of arsenic. 



Last June he found several larvae upon the liver of a subject in 

 whose stomach he had previously detected the presence of arse- 

 nic ; this liver was found on analysis to be saturated with arsenic. 

 In order to determine if the larvge were actually nourished by 

 such poisonous flesh, the bodies of several rats killed by arsenious 

 acid were exposed to the flies ; in forty-eight hours they were 

 completely fly-blown, and in a week all the flesh had been consumed 

 by the larvae ; after this they changed into chrysaHds. These 

 chrysalids on analysis yielded metallic arsenic. It might be sup- 

 posed that the arsenic, thus obtained, had been attracted mechan- 

 ically to the external surface of the larvae, and had not been swal- 

 lowed, especially as the denuded bones were covered with a white 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H. VOL. VII. 1 MARCH, 1859. 



