18 ©. R. Osten Sacken: on Mr. Portchinski's publications 
In 1854 a monographie essay on Sarcophila Wohlfahrti appeared 
(Horae etc. Vol. XVII, p. 247—314, with 33 woodeuts), containing 
some new observations, and comparative descriptions of this fly and 
its next relatives. 
The prineipal result which science owes to these papers is the 
elucidation of the history of 8. Wohlfahrti as a dangerous but 
hitherto unrecognized enemy of men and animals, the european sub- 
stitute of the celebrated Lueilia macellaria (Syn. L. hominivorax) 
of America. In 1768 Dr. Johann August Wohlfahrt, physician in 
Halle, published a paper: Observatio de vermibus per nares 
excretis, describing a case where peculiar worms in the nose of 
an old man produced intolerable headache, and almost drove him to 
madness. Wohlfahrt succeeded in breeding the fly of these larvae 
and gave a description, accompanied with figures sufficient for the 
recognition of the species. Numerous similar cases have been ob- 
served since, and either altogether misunderstood, or else ascribed 
to different other species of common carnivorous flies, species of 
Sarcophaga, Lucilia, Calliphora. To Mr. Portchinski belongs the 
merit of having pointed out that the great majority of the cases of 
the malum verminosum observed on men and animals äre produced 
by that particular species, described more than a century ago by old 
Wohlfahrt, and so far overlooked since, owing probably to its close 
resemblance to other species, that it was described for the first time 
by Schiner in 1862 only, who had no idea of its dangerous propen- 
sities, nor of its identity with the species deseribed, but not named 
by Wohlfahrt. Mr. Portchinski shows, that 8. Wohlfahrti oceurs 
all over Europe, that it attacks animals, domestie and wild, and that 
occasionally it causes horrible sufferings and even death among men. 
In the work of Dr. Megnin: „Les parasites et les maladies parasi- 
taires* Paris 13580, the author acknowledges Mr. Portchinski’s con- 
elusions and says: „that every time he succeeded in breeding the 
fly from such larvae, it was the Sarcophila Wohlfahrti which es- 
caped from the pupa; he adds: „Il y a done lieu de compter avec ce 
parasite & Tavenir” (l. c. p. 46). We fully sympathise with Mr. Port- 
chinski when he insists upon calling this fly 8. Wohlfahrti in honor 
of its first real deseriber, notwithstanding the name given to it by 
Schiner (8. magnifica), in ignorance of the earlier description. 
The new article of Mr. Portchinski, Comparative biology of 
the necrophagous and coprophagous larvae (Horae etc. Vol. 
XIX, p. 210—244, 1885), brings us a series of important observations, 
and illustrates the wonderful power of adaptation of these larvae to 
