IRRITATION DUE TO INSECT-LARVAE. 



143 



insect larvae. 1 The symptoms of such states vary according to 

 the condition and individuality of the patient, but the most frequent 

 are disturbances of some sort in the digestive function, or perhaps the 

 colic-like pains consequent upon these. The presence of larvse of 

 Anthomyia sometimes results in symptoms not unlike those of cholera. 

 In many cases the phenomena are further complicated by the irrita- 

 tion of the sympathetic and reflex systems of 

 nerves, and thus arise convulsions sometimes 

 local, sometimes general St. Yitus' dance, and 

 similar troubles. Many exaggerated statements 

 may have been made upon this matter, but we 

 have no right on that account to deny the exis- 

 tence of a relation which numerous observations 

 have made in the highest degree probable, and 

 which involves no inconsistency with anything 

 that we know of the nature of these diseases. 2 



What has been said here of intestinal worms 

 is also essentially true of the inmates of other 

 organs. Congestion and inflammation, with 

 their manifold secondary consequences, are ever 

 the first results of the irritation caused by the 

 various parasites. FIG. 88. Larva of A ntho- 



A most familiar example is furnished by the myia cuniculari8 ' 

 species of Strongylus which often occur in great numbers in the 

 bronchi of ungulates (S. micrurus and S. rufescens in the ox, 

 S. filaria in the sheep, S. paradoxes in the pig). These excite 

 inflammation, which spreads rapidly from the affected bronchi 

 to the associated pulmonary tissue, and often ends fatally. Fila- 

 roides mustelarum (= Spiroptera nasicola, Leuckart), living in the 

 frontal sinuses, causes the absorption of the walls outwards to 



1 Of the numerous relevant observations I will only cite one : Meschede, " Fall von 

 plotzlicher schwerer Erkrankung durch verschluckte Fliegenmaden." Virchow's Archiv 

 f.pathol. Anat., Bd. xxvi., p. 300, 1866. 



2 I may take this opportunity of citing the " odd observation " which Goze (loc. cit., p. 

 27, note) made on a young dog, hardly one year old, which suffered from Tcenia cucumerina. 

 " He was often seized with cramp, caused probably by the number of the worms, and lay 

 with his head and back bent, and the belly uppermost. He bent often to the side, and 

 rolled himself on the sand, but during the whole period of two months that I watched 

 him I never heard him bark once. I then administered a drastic purgative, which led to 

 the expulsion of a whole bowl of tape-worms, with and without ' heads.' He was restored 

 to health, and began to bark next day. Are there not instances of children infested with 

 worms remaining deaf and dumb for years ? I recall at least the title of a disserta- 

 tion ' De aphonia ex vermibus.'" Similarly Leisering remarks, on the strength of his 

 own observation, that dogs much infested with Tcenia echinococcus not unfrequently suffer 

 from a disease exactly like hydrophobia in its external characters (Bericht Veterinarwcsen 

 Sachsens, Jahrg. x., p. 87, 1864). 



