72 THE INSECT WOELD. 



When one of these degraded beings, who live in a state of sordid 

 filth, goes to sleep, a prey to intoxication, it happens sometimes 

 that this fly gets into his mouth and nostrils. It lays its eggs 

 there, and when they are changed into larvae, the death of the 

 victim generally follows.* 



These larvae are of an opaque white colour, a little over half an 

 inch in length, and have eleven segments. They are lodged 

 in the interior of the nasal orifices and the frontal sinuses, 

 and their mouths are armed with two very sharp horny mandibles. 

 They have been known to reach the ball of the eye, and to gan- 

 grene the eyelids. They enter the mouth, corrode and devour the 

 gums and the entrance of the throat, so as to transform those 

 parts into a mass of putrid flesh, a heap of corruption. 



Let us turn away from this horrible description, and observe 

 that this hominivorous fly is not, properly speaking, a parasite of 

 man, as it only attacks him accidentally, as it would attack any 

 animal that was in a daily state of uncleanliness. 



In many works on medicine may be found mentioned a circum- 

 stance, which occurred twenty years ago, at the surgery of M. J. 

 Cloquet. The story is perhaps not very agreeable, but is so 

 interesting as regards the subject with which we are occupied, 

 that we think it ought to be repeated here. One day a poor 

 wretch, half dead, was brought to the Hotel-Dieu. He was a 

 beggar, who, having some tainted meat in his wallet, had gone to 

 sleep in the sun under a tree. He must have slept long, as the 

 flies had time enough to deposit their eggs on the tainted meat, 

 and the larvae time enough to be hatched, and, what is more, to de- 

 vour the beggar's meat. It seems that the larvae enjoyed the repast, 

 for they passed from the dead meat to the living flesh, and after 

 devouring the meat they commenced to eat the owner. Awoke by 

 the pain, the beggar was taken to the Hotel-Dieu, where he expired. 

 Who would suppose that one of the causes which render the 

 centre of Africa difficult to be explored is a fly, not larger than 

 the house-fly ? The Tsetse fly (Fig. 53) is of brown colour, 



% 



* " The majority of convicts attacked by the Lucilia hominivorax" says M. F. 

 Bouyer, captain of the frigate, in ' Un Voyage a la Guyane Francaise,' " have suc- 

 cumbed despite the assistance of science. Cures have been the exception ; in a dozen 

 cases three or four are reported." Tour du Monde, 1866, \er Semestre, p. 318. 



