138 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



produced a fly as large as the flesh-fly''. — A patient of 

 Dr. Reeve of Norwich, after sufflering for some time 

 great pain, was at last relieved by voiding a consider- 

 able number of maggots, which agree precisely with 

 those described by De Geer as the larva of his JMusca 

 domeslica Tuinor, a fly wlnich he speaks of as very com- 

 mon in apartnients''. — In Paraguay the flesh-flies are 

 said to be uncommonly numerous and noxious. Azara 

 relates *= tliat, after a storm, when the heat was exces- 

 sive, he was assailed by such an army of them, that in 

 less than half an hour his clothes were quite white 

 with their eggs, so that he was forced to scrape them 

 ofl^ with a knife ; adding, that he has known instances 

 of persons, who, after having bled at the nose in their 

 sleep, were attacked by the most violent head-aches ; 

 when at length several great maggots, the offspring of 

 these flies, issuing from their nostrils, gave them re- 

 lief. — In Jamaica a large blue fly buzzes about the sick 

 in the last stages of fever ; and when they sleep or doze 

 with their mouths open, the nurses find it very difficult 

 to prevent these flies from laying their eggs in the nose, 

 mouth, or gums. An instance is recorded of a lady 

 who, after recovering from a fever, fell a victim to the 

 maggots of this fly, which from the nose found their 

 way through the os crihriforme into the cavity of the 

 skull, and afterwards into the brain ''. One of the 

 most shocking cases of Scolechiasis I ever met with is 

 related in Bell's Weeklj/ Messenger in the following 

 words : " On Thursday, June 25, died at Asbornby, 



* Leeuw. Epist. Oct. U, 1687, " EiKnb. Med. and Surg. Janin. 



ubi supr. Dp Gcer, vi. ^0, 27, " '216. 



*• Lcinprierc On the Diieascs of the Army in Jamaica, ii. 182. 



