— 124 — 



A living Ixodes said to have been four months in the 

 ear of a man. 



By Dr. H. A. Hagen. 



I received July i6lh. 1887, from INIr. John Orne Green, M. D. , 

 Ciiemical Instructor in Otology at the Harvard Medical School the follow- 

 ing letter together with the specimen. 



"I removed it alive from the ear of a man on Thursday last (July 14). 

 The symptoms, only itching and obstruction of the passage, daite back to 

 a residence on a cattle ranch in Arizona in INIarch and April last. The 

 singular things about it were the absence of pain, usually very great from 

 a live insect and the fact of the bug remaming alive in the ear for such a 

 long time."' The rather strange case induced me to ask if perhaps a cleri- 

 cal error or a chance of misunderstanding could have happened. In a 

 letter, July 23d, Dr. Green states : "Certain is it that it came out of his 

 ear, that it had produced no irritation and that the symptoms date back 

 to ]\Iarch or April. The tenacity of life is also remarkable."' 



This is all I know of this very strange case ; indeed so strange, that 

 1 answered, there would be many unbelievers, and that I had not been able 

 to find a similar case quoted in the literature. Nevertheless if somebody 

 would peruse Dr. Diefifenbach's article in Rusts Magazine — corpora aliena 

 in coipore humano — he will find reported some very strange cases. 



The insect is a Tick [Ixodes) long, 12 mm. broad 6 mm. It arrived 

 in my hands, not only living, but still lives to-day, Sept. 28, without having 

 taken any food. It changed its skin in August. In Packards Guide p. 663 

 is mentioned Ixodes bovis pi. 13 f. 10 as the common cattle tick of the 

 Western States and Central America. It lives on horned cattle, upon the 

 Rattlesnake, the Iguana and small mammals. It was received from Mis- 

 s'ouri from Mr. Riley and very abundantly on horned cattle from Mr^ 

 McNiel in Nicaragua. A large number of this species with Dr. Packard's 

 label Ixodes bovis Riley ; Polyon, Occident. Depart. Nicaragua, McNiel 

 coll., formerly in the Peabody Academy is before me, and they are appa- 

 rently of the same species. I can not find the species mentioned any- 

 whereexcept a notice "Ticks and Texas fever," Americ. Entomol. I, p. 28 

 where it is said that specimens sent from Illinois and St. Louis are but the 

 common cattle tick. A description by Dr. Packard is given Rep. 

 Peabody Acad. p. 68. This figure in the Guide has the feet too long. 



I do not know if the changing of the skin of Ixodes is described. 

 The skin splits a little above the mouth transversally and then along both 

 sides to the hind angles ; both sides of the skin are connected behind, 

 after the animal has crawled out. 



I have taken considerable care to find in the literature similar cases 

 reported. The only remark I know is in Peter Kalm's travels in N. Ameri- 



