(E3TEUS BOVINUS. 209 



I believe, the first ever published of its occurrence in Scot- 

 land. But then, as now, I felt assured that cases were not 

 so rare as this circumstance might seem to indicate. I was 

 therefore greatly gratified by the perusal of an excellent 

 paper on this disease in the Edinburgh Medical Journal for 

 November 1858, by Dr Spence of Lerwick, who gives an ex- 

 cellent account of several cases of it occurring in the Shet- 

 land Isles, and states his previous announcement of similar 

 observations in his inaugural dissertation presented to the 

 Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh in 1848* 

 The frequency of the disease in this gentleman's district, leads 

 us to express a hope that still farther observations may be 

 made by him on this interesting subject, and especially that 

 facts may be collected as to the subcutaneous migrations of 

 these animals. It might also be ascertained to what size 

 the larva grows in the human subject, and the careful tend- 

 ing of the mature larva in its subsequent metamorphoses 

 might lead to the decision of the question of the existence of 

 an oestrus peculiar to man. At present the circumstances 

 already enumerated, the occurrence of the larvae in the 

 exposed parts of the body, and in women who are all loosely 

 dressed, and in those much exposed in the habitats of the 

 oestrus, lead us to believe that in this country the human 

 insect is merely a stray or misled bovine bot. 



" E. C., a girl, aged 13, came from Perthshire in September 

 1853 to reside in Edinburgh. She had never been in bad 

 health till shortly after leaving the country, when she began 

 to suffer pains which she connected with the bots. She first 

 felt a little lump on the back of the neck, which slowly 

 changed its position in various directions. Then a hole 

 opened over it, and a worm was squeezed out. Some weeks 



* See Edinburgh Veterinary Review, vol. i. p. 400. 

 VOL. ii. 3 II 



