49 



the egg\s developed and of a further series of 11 laboratory-bred 

 rats allowed to feed on these infected cockroaches, T showed 

 nematodes, and in three of these the hyperplasia of the stomach 

 was marked ; 43 laboratory-bred rats fed on non-infected cock- 

 roaches yielded negative results. Prof. Fibiger has no doubt what- 

 ever, as the result of careful microscopical examination, tliat, in 

 the advanced cases, he was dealing- with true malignant tumours. 

 The association of Bilharzia haematohia with vesical carcinomata 

 is known, but this is the first occasion on which a malignant 

 tumour has been produced experimentally. 



Hall (M. C.) & Mum (J. T.). A Critical Study of a Case of 

 Myiasis due to Eristalis.- — Archives of Inteimal Medicine, 

 Chicago, xi, no. 2, 15th Feb. 1913, pp. 193-203. 



One of the authors was called professionally to see a boy, aged 

 five years, who had been ailing about 10 weeks and was under 

 treatment for indigestion and obstinate constipation. The 

 emaciation seemed to be due to the fact that the boy had for some 

 time vomited almost everything he ate. Medicine was prescribed, 

 but the mother purchased and administered a proprietary worm 

 remedy. The stools were passed the same evening and with 

 proper precautions to prevent the introduction from outside of 

 any visible organisms ; when examined they were found to contain 

 one of the " rat-tailed larvae," the larva of a fly of the family 

 Syrphidae. As it is a question whether Dipterous larvae can 

 survive the digestive process of the alimentary canal and pass 

 out in the faeces alive and uninjured, the case is of some interest. 

 There are very few records of such occurrences and in many cases, 

 especially those occurring in the country, there is always con- 

 siderable room for doubt as to w^hether the larvae found had been 

 passed by the patient or had got into the faeces from outside. 

 Banks remarks that the number of Dipterous larvae which occur 

 in decaying fruits and A'egetables and on fresh and cooked meats 

 and other articles of food is so great that large numbers must be 

 swallowed by persons every year, and generally without any 

 serious consequences. The authors quote fifteen more or less well 

 authenticated cases of various Dipterous larvae, chiefly Eristalis, 

 which have passed through the human alimentary canal un- 

 injured. In the particular case under consideration, the child 

 confessed to having drunk water from a ditch full of all manner 

 of rotting matter. Eeasons for believing that this particular 

 larva had passed through the alimentary tract are given at some 

 length, and it is stated that there was no reasonable possibility 

 of its having reached the faeces from the outside. Syrphid flies 

 were particularly numerous round the boy's dwelling place. 



The authors give the following list of larvae as having been 

 found, without d.oubt, alive within the human body and conclude 

 with a bibliography of the subject. Odhelius's case of Helojyhilus 

 penduhis; Wagner's case of Eristalis arhnstoruni; Leidy's case of 

 Eristalis sp. (nasal) ; Riley's case of Eristalis dimidiatvs and of 

 E. tenax; Shattock's case of E. tenax; and McCampbell and 

 Corper's case of E . tenax. 



