200 Mr Sharp, A Coleopterous Insect, etc. 



The other nodule on being opened contained blackish, pul- 

 taceous material, with no trace of structure. There was an 

 indefinite cyst-wall. 



There were no inflammatory changes in the tissues round either 

 nodule. The two were similar in external appearance and roughly 

 circular, with a diameter of about half an inch. They projected 

 towards the lumen of the intestine. 



The living beetle was undoubtedly beneath the mucous mem- 

 brane and not either (1) free in the lumen, or (2) between the 

 sides of a fold in the wall. 



The weevil Otiorhynchus tenebricosus occurs in this neighbour- 

 hood, but not very commonly. 



A good specimen was found this afternoon in some turf in the 

 garden of one of the out-buildings. 



WALTER H. LIGERTWOOD, 



Assistant Medical Officer, 

 Somerset and Bath County Asylum, 

 Wells, Somerset. 

 May 14, 1903. 



The beetle extracted was at once sent to Mr C. G. Lamb, M.A., 

 for identification, who for greater certainty brought it to me ; it 

 proved to be a female of Otiorhynchus tenebricosus, a weevil fully 

 half-an-inch long. This beetle is not carnivorous, but in the 

 larval state feeds on roots, and in the imago condition on the leaves 

 of bushes. 



The specimen is in a fairly good state of preservation, except 

 that Mr Ligertwood accidentally severed one of its posterior legs 

 in extracting it from its extraordinary prison. 



Dr Thebault recently made experiments showing that the 

 larva of Piophila casei — the common cheese-maggot — can traverse 

 the whole length of the human alimentary canal without being 

 killed*. 



It appears therefore that accounts of the finding of living 

 insects in the human alimentary canal must not be rejected on 

 account of the inherent improbability of life being maintained in 

 such a situation. 



* Arch, parasitol. iv. 



