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NOTE ON A CASE OF INTESTINAL MYIASIS. 
By J. R. GARROOD, M.D. 
The following case of Intestinal Myiasis occurred in a boy about 
twelve years of age, in normal health, who brought to me in September 
1909 what he took to be “worms” discharged with his faeces. He said 
he did not feel anything abnormal but saw a mass of the creatures upon 
and in his freshly-voided faeces. He called his mother, and she stated 
to me afterwards that the “worms were in a cluster like a swarm of 
bees,” they were crawling about the faecal mass which was loose in 
character, as had been the case for several days. They varied considerably 
in size, as did the specimens brought to me. The mass of creatures 
would have filled one or two tablespoons. 
The boy was taking his ordinary diet, his meat was probably beef or 
pork, and may have been imperfectly cooked, be also had cabbage and 
other vegetables, but not salads or uncooked vegetables. 
The home conditions were not the most cleanly and there would 
probably be no lack of opportunity for the entry of the parasites either 
in the egg or larval form. 
I took specimens of the larvae to the Cambridge Zoological Laboratory 
and they were sent to Dr David Sharp, who identified them as the larvae 
of a species of Homalomyia 1 . 
I could not ascertain that the boy suffered any inconvenience from 
the presence of the larvae in the bowel, save perhaps a little diarrhoea, 
but he seemed to be mentally disturbed by their exit! There has been 
no recurrence 2 . 
1 I am very much indebted to Dr Shipley, Prof. Nuttall and Mr Hugh Scott for the help 
they have given me in the preparation of this note. 
2 That the presence of living animals in the bowel may give rise to serious symptoms 
is shown by a case I saw recently: a boy aged 5£ years complained of pain in the stomach 
which gradually extended downwards and after three days he passed a centipede ( Lithobius ) 
in a constipated motion, this was followed by some diarrhoea. 
This history seems to be accurate, for the boy’s father brought me the centipede and 
stated that it was partly imbedded in the faecal mass and was alive and moving. The 
motion was passed into a clean and empty vessel. 
