(ESTKUS BOVINUS. 207 



much of the danger is avoided, as the animals at this time 

 would most probably be upon dry land, and in a more quiet 

 state than at mid-day, and the birds also would not then be 

 present." 



It is not unimportant for me to notice here that the gad- 

 fly is apt occasionally to attack the human being. Dr 

 Matthews Duncan contributed an interesting paper on this 

 subject to the first volume of the Edinburgh Veterinary 

 Review. He refers to the subject as follows: "Travellers 

 have brought us, from remote regions, accounts of bots being 

 found in men, in such numbers in one individual, and in so 

 many cases, as to give the question of the existence of an 

 oestrus hominis in these regions a quite different aspect from 

 what it presents if we confine our attention to Europe. 

 Kirby and Spence,* for example, believe that the Spanish 

 traveller Azara mistook this insect when he said, ' that in 

 South America there is a large brown moth, which deposits 

 its young in a kind of saliva upon the flesh of persons who 

 sleep naked. These introduce themselves under the skin 

 without being perceived, where they occasion swelling, at- 

 tended by inflammation and violent pain. When the natives 

 discover it, they squeeze out the larvae, which usually amount 

 to five or six.' In his edition of the 'Sy sterna Naturae,' 

 Gmelin says : ' Habitat larva in America australi per sex 

 menses sub cute hominum abdominali, si turbetur, profundius 

 penetrando periculosa, adeo ut fertur, lethalis ; imago museae 

 domesticse magnitudine/ Again, MM. Humboldt and Bon- 

 pland, speaking of certain districts of the equatorial regions, 

 make the following remark : ' Aux mosquitos se joignent 

 I'oestrus humanus, qui depose ses ceufs dans la peau de 1'hom- 

 me, et y cause des enflures douloureuses/-|- And I believe 



* Introduction to Entomology, p. 72. 



t Essaisur la Geographic dcs plant es. Paris, 1807. P. 136. 



