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THE INSECT WORLD. 
When one of these degraded beings, who live in a state of sordid 
filth, goes to sleep, a prey to intoxication, it happens sometimes 
that this fly gets into his mouth and nostrils. It lays its eggs 
there, and when they are changed into larve, the death of the 
victim generally follows.* 
These larve are of an opaque white colour, a little over half an 
inch in length, and have eleven segments. They are lodged 
in the interior of the nasal orifices and the frontal sinuses, 
and their mouths are armed with two very sharp horny mandibles. 
They have been known to reach the ball of the eye, and to gan- 
grene the eyelids. They enter the mouth, corrode and devour the 
gums and the entrance of the throat, so as to transform those 
parts into a mass of putrid flesh, a heap of corruption. 
Let us turn away from this horrible description, and observe 
that this hominivorous fly is not, properly speaking, a parasite of 
man, as it only attacks him accidentally, as it would attack any 
animal that was in a daily state of uncleanliness. 
In many works on medicine may be found mentioned a circum- 
stance, which occurred twenty years ago, at the surgery of M. J. 
Cloquet. The story is perhaps not very agreeable, but is so 
interesting as regards the subject with which we are occupied, 
that we think it ought to be repeated here. One day a poor 
wretch, half dead, was brought to the Hotel-Dieu. He was a 
beggar, who, having some tainted meat.in his wallet, had gone to 
s] »in the sun undera tree. He must have slept long, as the 
fl. had time enough to deposit their eggs on the tainted meat, 
and the larvee time enough to be hatched, and, what is more, to de- 
vour the beggar’s meat. It seems that the larvae enjoyed the repast, 
for they passed from the dead meat to the living flesh, and after 
devouring the meat they commenced to eat the owner. _Awoke by 
the pain, the beggar was taken to the Hotel-Dieu, where he expired. 
Who would suppose that one of the causes which render the 
centre of Africa difficult to be explored is a fly, not larger than 
the house-fly? The Tsetse fly (Fig. 53) is of brown colour, 
* “The majority of convicts attacked by the Lwcilia hominivorax,”’ says M. F, 
Bouyer, captain of the frigate, in ‘Un Voyage a la Guyane Francaise,’ “ have suc- 
cumbed despite the assistance of science. Cures have been the exception ; in a dozen 
cases three or four are reported.’’— Tour du Monde, 1866, ler Semestre, p. 318. 


