On the Larva of a supposed (Estrus Hominis. 285 



of flies, beetles, &c. working out their way from different parts 

 of the human frame. 



Mr Clark mentions a case in which the gad-fly of the ox ap- 

 pears to have left its accustomed prey, and deposited its eggs 

 in the jaw of a woman, who eventually died of disease produced 

 by the botts which sprung from the eggs. Leeuwenhoeck ob- 

 tained maggots from a glandular swelling on the leg of a wo- 

 man. These he fed with flesh till they assumed the pupa state, 

 and afterwards produced a perfect insect as large as a flesh-fly. 

 Lempriere in his work on the Diseases of the Army in Jo- 

 maica, records the case of a lady, who, after recovering from a 

 dangerous fever, died a victim to the maggots of a large blue 

 fly, which sometimes buzzes about the sick in the West Indies, 

 and which, in the case alluded to, made their way from the 

 nose through the os cribriforme, and so to the brain. A re- 

 volting instance of scholechiasis is narrated in BelPs WeeTcly Mes- 

 senger, as quoted by Messrs Kirby and Spence *. A pauper, 

 of the name of Page, was in the habit of secreting the remnants 

 of his food betwixt his shirt and skin. On one occasion, a piece 

 of flesh was so concealed, when the poor man was taken ill and 

 laid himself down to repose in a field in the parish of Screding- 

 ton. The weather being hot, the meat speedily became pu- 

 trescent, and was blown by the flies. The maggots, which were 

 of course hatched almost immediately, after devouring the meat, 

 proceeded to prey upon the body of the pauper, whose stiU liv- 

 ing form, when discovered by some neighbouring inhabitants, 

 presented a most appalling spectacle. He was carried to a sur- 

 geon, but died a few hours after the first dressing of his 

 wounds. 



These, and other similar cases, ought not to be considered so 

 much in the hght of ordinary or natural effects, as the result of 

 accidents produced by filth and disease. It is otherwise, how- 

 ever, with the gad-flies, whose natural habit appears to be to 

 deposite their eggs beneath the skin, or among the hairs of qua- 

 drupeds, in a healthy or unimpaired condition. Although sys- 

 tematic authors have described an (Estrus hominis, said to de- 

 posite its eggs beneath the skin of man, and to produce ulcers, 



• Introduetion to Entomology, vol. i. p. 138. 



