OP PHILADELPHIA. 37 



Respecting this worm there are different opinions among the 

 Spaniards and Creoles. Ouche is the name it is called by some, 

 who say it is produced by a worm which crawls on the body, from 

 the ground, and penetrating the skin, increases in size. Others 

 maintain that they are produced from the sting of a winged insect 

 which they call Zcmcudo* others again, call the insect Husano; 

 for my part, I am rather inclined to think that they are produced 

 from the sting of a winged insect, which deposits its egg. 



" N. B. Should it even be proved that the form of the anterior 

 part of this larva is owing to the violence used in extracting it, 

 of which there is no appearance, still it will stand as distinct 

 from other known species." 



[The larva above described, is now supposed to be that of Cute- 

 rebra noxialis Groudot, for the characters of which see Annales de 

 la Societe Entomologique de France, 2d series, 2, xli. For a de- 

 tailed discussion of all the facts known on the subject of CEstri 

 in the human body, consult Keferstein, tiber CEstrus hominis 

 Verh. Zool. Botan. Vereins in Wien, 1856, 637. 



While travelling in Honduras, several of my companions were 

 very much afflicted with similar larvas; they seem to infest par- 

 ticular portions of the body not usually exposed ; the jjectoral, 

 dorsal and lumbar regions, the thighs and upper parts of the 

 arm. When the eggs were deposited, was entirely unknown to 

 the patients, none of them having ever observed a fly alight on 

 the body; but from the position of the parasite, it is most proba- 

 ble that the eggs were laid while the patients were bathing. 

 The effects of these intruders are very much exaggerated in the 

 text ; they produce a swelling, having the appearance of an ordi- 

 nary boil, in which, at times, is felt, for a few seconds, an acute 

 pain when the worm moves ; the method of extraction is very 

 simple, and but moderately painful. The tumor is held be- 

 tween the thumb and forefinger, a lighted segar is approached 

 to the skin as near as the patient will permit, when the worm 

 becomes restless, and the point of his body will be seen at a very 

 minute orifice in the skin, not before obvious ; the segar is im- 

 mediately dropped, and with both hands the tumor is com- 

 pressed violently ; the worm is thus forced out, sometimes with 



* The word Zancudo is used by tiie South American Spaniards to de- 

 note several species of Culex. — S. 

 1822.] 



