Further reports (no. 5) on flies as carriers of infection.

Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Further reports (no. 5) on flies as carriers of infection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/30 (page 11)
    J1 wJieii tlie faeces of a bulky stool were found alive with the larvsB —between 1,000 and 1,500 in all. A few larvse eoiitiimed to come away for a few weeks.”(^) It is noteworthy that many cases of intestinal Myiasis due to Fannia larvse, such as those recorded by Mr. Jenyns and Dr. Cattle {see below), have occurred in country districts, where sanitary conveniences are usually of an extremely primitive type. Now, both Fannia canicularis and F. scalaris are often common in and about privies, in the contents of which they frequently breed, and it seems to the present writer not impossible that some of these cases of Myiasis owe their origin to the parent dies having oviposited on the anus while the patient was at stool. Fannia scalaris, Eabr. What may almost be regarded as the classical instance of intestinal Myiasis caused by Fannia larvae is that recorded by the llev. Leonard Jenyns,(’') so long ago as 18J9.* The patient in the case in question, to which reference has frequently been made in papers on the subject of Myiasis, was an elderly clergy- man living near Cambridge, whose symptoms prior to the appearance of the larvae were “ general weakness, loss of appe- tite, and a disagreeable sensation about the epigastrium, which he described as a tremulous motion.” These symptoms,” writes Mr. Jenyns, “commenced in the spring of 1836, and it was not till the summer and autumn of that year that the larvae V were observed in the motions. They then passed off in very large quantities on different occasions, the discharge continuing at intervals for several months. According to the patient’s own statement, the chamber-vessel was sometimes half full of these animals; at other times they were mixed with the stools. He thinks that altogether tlie quantity evacuated must have amounted to several quarts. The larvae were all nearly of equal size, and, when first passed, quite alive, moving with great activity.” From the careful description and figures of the larvae accompanying Mr. Jenyns’s account, it is evident that the species concerned in this case, which is remarkable owing to its severity and duration, was not Fannia canicularis, as was sup- posed, but F. scalaris, Fabr. At least two cases of intestinal Myiasis due to larvae of this species have come under the notice of the present writer; in connection with one of these the medical man who forwarded specimens for determination wrote:—“A patient of mine (a drinking man aged about 50) showed me some of his motions, with about a dozen of the enclosed animals on it. He declares he has them constantly on his motions when he passes them.” A case somewhat similar to that of the old clergyman referred to above, except that in this instance the patient was a youth of 19, was published in 1906 by Dr. C. H. Cattle.(®) The patient consulted Dr. Cattle in September, 1905, “ stating that he had a ‘ nest of insects ’ in his inside, of which he had passed per anuin a basinful at one time.” “For some weeks previously,” writes Dr. Cattle, “ he had not been feeling well. He now complained * See also page 19.