1 63 4 THE MYIASES AND ALLIED CONDITIONS 



(fiyworm), gusano moyocuil (maggot fiyworm); Colombia, Venezuela, 

 and Guatemala, gusano de zancudo (maggot of mosquito); Dutch 

 Guiana, Trinidad, mosquito worm. 



History. — In 1569 Friar Pedro Simon appears to have been the 

 first to have drawn attention to this myiasis as seen along the banks 

 of the Rio Magdalena and the low plains to the east of the Andes. 

 He was followed in 1653 by Father Bernabe Cobo, who reported its 

 occurrence in the Mexican lowlands in the coast district of Alvarado, 

 in the state of Vera Cruz. In 1745 De la Condamine reported it 

 from French Guiana, as did Arture in 1757. In 1781 Linnjeus 

 junior reported it from Peru and gave a bri^f mention of the fly, 

 while in 1822 Say gave a description of the larva as received from 

 South America. In 1835 Hope gave an account of the larva from 

 under the skin of the head of a man from Trinidad. The specimen 

 was deposited in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of 

 England. 



From that date scattered, but fairly numerous, references can 

 be found — e.g., Hill (1830), Guyon (1835), Gondot (1845), Coquerel 

 (1859), Laboulbene and Davaine (i860). Bonnet (1870), Der Verteuil 

 (1884), Ormerod (1886), etc. — until between 1890 and 1896 Blan- 

 chard published a resume of known facts, then a series of admirable 

 investigations upon the subject; and in 19 15 Sambon again gathered 

 together known facts, together with the history of the mosquito 

 carriage of the eggs, and extended this with his own personal 

 observations. 



With reference to the mosquito carriage, it is remarkable to note 

 that Father Cobo, in 1653, says that each wound produced by the 

 common mosquito produces within the flesh a spine-covered worm the 

 size of a haricot bean or even larger. 



In 191 1 Morales of Guatemala first described the transmission 

 of the eggs as being due to a mosquito, and performed an experiment 

 on a man, first noting the escape of the larva from the egg carried 

 by a living mosquito when placed on the palm of the hand, then 

 allowing this larva to wander about the forearm, and then scratching 

 the skin and watching the larva burrow in, then noting the gradual 

 development of the furuncle, and finally, when threatened with sup- 

 puration, removing the larva, transplanting it into the back of a 

 rabbit, and watching its escape as a nymph. Also in 19 11 Tovar of 

 Maturin, in Venezuela, had noted this mosquito carriage, which 

 was also studied by Blanchard in 1912, Rincones, Zepeda, and Sur- 

 couf in 1913, and Sambon in 1915. 



Climatology. — The causal agent being a neotropical insect, the 

 distribution of the disease is confined to Tropical America, in which 

 it occurs in the lowlands along the coast and also in the valleys of 

 the river, but it is absent in the hills and mountains. It begins 

 near the southern borders of the United States, being found in 

 Mexico, in Central America — i.e., British and Spanish Honduras, 

 Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama; in South America 

 ■ — i.e., Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, and Peru; while 



