Hagen.] 7 1 2 [November 27, 
Journ. Vil, 47, speaks of the very questionable authority of those 
authors whose credulity is at least equal to their learning and in- 
dustry. 
LIST OF CASES IN WHICH INSECTS ARE SAID TO HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED 
THROUGH THE URETHRA. 
No. 1. Ambr. Paré. Giuvres. 1582. fol. reimpr. Paris, 1841, m1, 35. 
The celebrated father of surgery says L. Duretus is affirmed to 
have discharged after a long sickness a living animal through the 
urethra similar to an Oniscus, of red color. LeClerc says similar to 
a Hog or Wood Louse. A second case reported by Pare is entirely 
fabulous. Ihave not seen the figure of Paré, which is omitted in 
the reprint as being very bad.t 
No. 2. Nic. Tulpii, Observationum medicarum Libr. 111. Amstel- 
odamii, 1641. 8vo. Lib. 11, cap. L, p. 178. Undeviginti vermiculi 
emicti. Tab. vir. f. 2. A prominent physician in Amsterdam, 
convalescent after an intermittent fever, discharged in one week 
through the urethra without pain twenty-one larve. ‘The figure is 
not good, but perfectly recognizable as a. larva of Homalomyia, 
probably H. scalaris. In the description the tail is taken to be the 
head. Tulpius says that this larva is very similar to those dis- 
charged by Lud. Duretus. . 
No. 3. Lib. 11, cap. Li, p. 179. Cottidianus vermium mictus. 
Tab. vu, f. 3. A lady fifty years old discharged at the end of a 
sickness on several days five or six small worms, two of them large, 
of the size of the joint of a finger. The figure shows probably the 
meal worm, the larva of Tenebrio molitor. The medical prescription 
to prevent a farther propagation of the worms is carefully noted 
down, and consists of three medicines containing together a whole 
pound of twenty different drugs. No wonder that the worms could 
not stand so uncivil a reception, almost equal to an attack with 
Krupp guns! 
No. 4. G. C. Gahrliep von der Muehlen, Ephemerid. Acad. 
Natur. Curios., 1694, Dec. m1, Ann. 1, Observ. 82, p.126-127, fig. 
An old gentleman after a chronic inflammation of the bladder dis- 
charged a few days before his death, through the urethra, a fatty ball 
containing a larva similar to those of Microlepidoptera, pale flesh- 
colored, with six legs, very active. The larva lived twelve days, and 
was then accidentally killed by closing the box in which it was 
preserved. The description of the case is somewhat odd, the figure 
1 While my paper has been passing through press, I have been able to examine 
two old original editions with the figures, which are not recognizable. 
