THE HEALING PROPERTIES OF ALLANTOIN AND UREA 

 DISCOVERED THROUGH THE USE OF MAGGOTS IN 

 HUMAN WOUNDS ' 



By William Robinson 



A few years ago Dr. William S. Baer (1929) presented a new and 

 unusual treatment of slow-healing wounds such as the persistent and 

 widespread bone disease known as osteomyelitis. Sterile blowfly 

 maggots were placed directly into wounds that had failed to heal 

 under other treatments, and after a few applications of maggots the 

 wounds in general became cleaner and healing began to take place. 



In the early work of Dr. Baer and his associates, Dr. F. C. Bishopp, 

 of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, was called upon 

 to aid in the development of methods of producing surgically sterile 

 maggots in ample quantity for the surgeon's use. From this early 

 beginning entomologists have continued investigational work in this 

 field. 



The present report is a popidar review of the subject to date. The 

 original articles describing in detail the nature of the research and 

 the results obtained have been published chiefly in medical journals 

 listed at the end of the paper. 



The Baer maggot treatment attracted considerable attention, and 

 spread rapidly throughout the United States and into Mexico, South 

 America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. 



Such a novel method as this aroused a good deal of interest in the 

 manner in which maggots could produce beneficial results in stubborn 

 discharging wounds. In nature the maggots feed upon dead and 

 decaying animal material, and this loathsome habit naturally sug- 

 gested that in wounds the maggots remove necrotic tissue and pus. 

 Robinson and Norwood (1933) found further that the maggots are 

 able to digest and destroy pus-forming bacteria. These habits would 

 account for the cleaner condition of the wound and thereby make it 

 more favorable for healing. The progress of healing in resistant cases 

 of long standing was sometimes outstanding, however, and indicated 

 that the maggots were not only acting as scavengers but were actually 

 injecting a potent healing substance into the wound. 



' Contribution from the Division of Insects Afleeting Man and Animals, Bureau of Entomology and 

 Plant Quarantine, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



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