154 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
generally upon the lower extremities, between the knee and foot. This pimple 
grows rapidly and is painless. Soon the top decays and drops out leaving a cavity 
with raw, red, irregular, ragged edges. When the ulcer, if on the lower extremi- 
ties, has spread to two inches in diameter its further growth is very slow. Many 
times it breaks out in the nose and then the ulcers on the other parts heal. From 
the nose it spreads all over the antra, sinuses, mouth, throat, and in places on 
the face, eyes and ears. The ichorous discharge from the nose and throat is 
fetid; that from the external ulcers less so. Actual cautery with a red-hot iron 
will kill it in the start but excision only hastens the formation of an ulcer. 
Many fatal cases occur, but the majority heal in five or six years. 
Opinions differ as to the cause. Some assure you it is a sting of an insect, 
some of a nettle, while others claim it to be a mineral poison which passes into 
the circulation through some abrasion. 
The actual cautery by arsenic followed by internal minute doses will cure 
seventy-five per cent. 
Grubs of the Oestrus Fly. — One of the unpleasant annoyances of a life 
in the forests about the Amazon and its tributaries is the deposit in the body of 
eggs by the Oestrus Fly. These eggs soon hatch out worms which grow to one- 
quarter of an inch in diameter and three-quarters to one inch in length. We 
have seen birds with their bodies full of these worms. Their usual place of 
deposit on the human being is the nape of the neck. But this is trifling beside 
the itching produced by the bites of a minute insect, the " Acarus Scarlata." 
Wherever there is grass or pasture lands in these low, damp countries this insect 
is found, but more abundant in the dry season. As soon as it is filled with blood 
it can be seen as a red speck at the root of the hairs of the body in the folds of 
the navel and nipples. During the month of its greater abundance none escape 
without scratching themselves raw, often forming distressing sores. One learns to 
shun the grass. The public squares and spaces about the houses are carefully 
kept free from it. Nor are the forests free from pests. One of the duties of a 
hunter in the Amazon forests is occasionally to strip off all clothing and pick off 
the small woodticks before they burrow under the skin. Once they make an 
entrance they must not be pulled off, as it will sever the body from the head, and 
this is a poison to be avoided. The usual way is to place a lighted cigar or 
ember near their bodies and the heat causes them to withdraw. 
These are not diseases in themselves, but the after effects often prove very 
difficult to treat successfully. 
