240 



THE AMERICAN 



LaevjE in Human Bowels — West Chester, 

 Pa., April 14, '70. — The article in tlie March 

 number of the Entomologist on " Larvae in the 

 Human Bowels," brings forcibly to miucl a case 

 in point, which I will briefly relate. About the 

 last of September, 1852, my little daughter, aged 

 four years and a half, while on a visit to a friend, 

 ate a large quantity of Catawba and Isabella 

 grapes, from the vines in the garden, to wMch 

 she had free access. A few daj^s afterwards she 

 was violently attacked with dysentery, from 

 which she died in about three weeks. Duiing 

 her illness the motions from the bowels were 

 frequently and critically examined b)^ myself 

 and another physician in attendance with me, 

 without detecting any larvce. 



One year after interment, the old burial ground 

 was required to be vacated, and the bodies were 

 removed to a new cemetery. Wliile superintend- 

 ing the removal of the remains of my child, I 

 requested the undertaker to remove the lid of 

 the inner cofln, and to my great amazement I 

 beheld hundreds of dead and dried larvas (such 

 as represented in your Figure 93) adhering to 

 the clothing and lining of the coffin. There 

 were no evidences of the perfect fly, the larvas 

 seeming to have died while crawling about in 

 vain efforts to escape. I cannot be mistaken as 

 to the larvcB, as I particularly noticed the ar- 

 rangement of the branchial spines on the sides 

 and back of one, with a pocket lens, and as they 

 had all died iu an extended position, the two 

 black hooks on the inferior surface of the head 

 were plainly visible. Having paid some atten- 

 tion to entomology for some years previous, I 

 recognized it as the larva of some Dipterous 

 insect, with which I was unacquainted, and I 

 wondered at their presence in such numbers, as 

 the body was kept in a cold and darkened room, 

 the weather being so cold at the time as to 

 require Are throughout the house, and all flies 

 having disappeared except the common House- 

 fly. The conclusion at which I arrived at the 

 time was, that the ova of these larvse had been 

 deposited on the body before interment. The 

 question now arises, was the disease a symptom 

 of the presence of these larvse, and wei'e the ova 

 taken iu with the fruit? 



W. D. Haetman, M.D. 



Beech-boring Larva— De^roif, Mich., April 

 9, 1870. — The accompan^dng rough sketch will 

 give some idea of a boring lately observed by 

 me in Beech-wood. I also enclose, in three dis- 

 tinct stages, the larva whose work tliis is. The 

 general direction of these borings is almost al- 

 ways horizontal or at right angles to the grain 

 of the wood, and frequently they are exactly 



parallel to each other as though laid oflf with 

 mathematical precision. At first the passages 

 are without the side branches or galleries, but 

 after about the first inch, and sometimes before, 

 these begin, as shown in my sketch, which is 

 natural size. They are mostly at right angles to 

 the mainwaj' and perpendicular, or with the 

 grain of the wood, and many of them are per- 

 fectly parallel to each other. I found but a single 

 larva in each boring. This seems a remarkable 

 amount of work for so small an insect, notwith- 

 standing its powerful jaws. The earliest stage 

 of the larva is found in the simple, the more 

 advanced stages in the compound or branched 

 passages. The character of this excavation, 

 though, appears to depend much on the quality 

 of the Beech. Where the wood is smooth and 

 even the perforation is correspondingly straight 

 and symmetrical, and the side chambers ,do not 

 so soon appear, or not for at least an inch ; but 

 where knotty, wrinkled or contorted grain is 

 met with by these little engineers, we find their 

 work less regular and with more tortuous wind- 

 ings, the side chambers branching off' sometimes 

 at once in such cases. When encountering a 

 knot or other similar obstruction they change 

 their course in accordance, following the twisted 

 grain on one side of it. Sometimes the excava- 

 tions do not enter the solid wood immediately, 

 but wind between it and the bark for a few 

 inches. I have also obseiTed some instances of 

 three or more mainways leading off" from one 

 general entrance, at angles of about twenty 

 degrees. The entrance, in the bark, is some- 

 what smaller than the interior, and is generally 

 closed, being not easily xjerceived. These larvse 

 were taken from their excavations on the first of 

 April. 



On the ninth of April (this morning) I found 

 several species of the beetle or perfect insect, 

 some of which I also send herewith . These were 

 usually iu the small side chambers, but towards 

 the entrance of the boring, as though making 

 their way out. In two instances I took two of 

 these beetles from a single chamber into which 

 thejr were tightly wedged. They appear dor- 

 mant at first, but afterwards are quite lively. 



I do not send specimens of the borings li-om 

 the fact that the first I found, and from wMch 

 my drawing was made, were unfortunately not 

 preserved by me, and 1 have since failed to ob- 

 tain as fair specimens. Indeed, it is rather diffi- 

 cult to get them out without sxjoiling them. And 

 in my eagerness to obtain the insects I was not 

 as careful as I might have been to preseiwe their ' 

 dwellings, which I generally had to destroy in 

 order to get the inmates. So you will have to 



