Occurrence of the Larva of the Drone-Fly in Man. 161 
On the 1st October, Dr D. M. Hutton, one of the residents 
in the Royal Infirmary, brought me a living larva, which, 
alone with two others, had been passed per anum by a 
patient in one of Dr Wylie’s wards. I have to thank 
Dr Wylie and Dr Hutton for the three specimens which 
I exhibit, and for allowing me to record the occurrence. 
I had little difficulty in identifying the larva as the 
“yat-tail” larva of the Drone-Fly; on comparing it with 
a specimen kindly sent me by Dr David Sharp of Cambridge, 
I could only discern trivial differences. 
Therefore I need hardly say that the parasite larva had a 
telescopic respiratory tail, a pair of double horn-like pro- 
jections on the head, seven pairs of bristled stump-like 
appendages, and soon. The larve were long ago described 
by Réaumur, and have been recently studied by Wilkinson, 
Miall, Buckton, and others.t I am solely concerned here 
with noting their occurrence in man. 
It is unlikely that this has not been noted before, but 
I have been unable to find a reference. Of course cases of 
“myiasis,” due to various dipterous larve, have been often 
observed.” 
As to their introduction into the patient, I am told that 
on 24th September he drank from a spring on Luffness Golf 
Links, and that in a few days he began to suffer from 
diarrhea, etc. The three larvee were passed on 1st October 
in the Hospital, but it may have been that these were not. 
the first. 
Although it is probable that the patient swallowed young 
larve along with the water drunk on the links, there are two 
zoological difficulties—(1) that the eggs are usually laid and 
the larvee developed in stagnant water containing animal or 
feecal matter, or in some moist carcase; and (2) that the 
period between the 24th September and 1st October is very 
short for the attainment of almost the full larval size. 
1 Professor L. C. Miall, Natural History of Aquatic Insects (London, 1895), 
2 For a detailed bibliography see Professor M. Braun, Die Thierischen 
Parasiten des Menschen, 2nd ed., pp. 277, 278 (Wiirzburg, 1895); and Dr 
G. Alessandrini, Raro caso di parassitismo nell’ uomo (Sarcophaga affinis), 
Boll. Soc. Rom, Stud. Zool., iv. (1895) pp. 278-89. 
