Report of the case of a patient from whose subcutaneous tissue three larvae of a species of dermatobia were removed : with remarks / by Rudolph Matas.

  • Matas, Rudolph, 1860-1957.
Date:
[between 1880 and 1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the case of a patient from whose subcutaneous tissue three larvae of a species of dermatobia were removed : with remarks / by Rudolph Matas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    larvae early every morning, from 5 to 6 a. m., and which produced' a sensation somewhat like that of a needle plunged suddenly into the skin.” (Quoted by Laboul- bene.) ' ■■ J. Gaudot also writes that in South America the people employ methods quite similar to those followed in Europe to dislodge the hypoderma of cattle. After squeezing the tumor until the larvae are thrown out, the larval cavity is washed out with salt water. Often, however, an animal that has been washed in the morning will be found at night covered with hundreds of larvae, which can only be radi- cally exterminated by filling up the holes 'with tobacco ex- tfact“(the savro de cachimba of‘ the'‘Brazilians), or by dusting' them with a dried and pulverized fruit of the assa- gria officinalis (Lindley). It is advisable to leave the larvae of the dermatobia grow for some days after they are de- posited under the skin, so that the pressure exercised in the process of squeezing them out be more efficacious. This is what the natives of South America have learned to do in their plan of “ feeding the worms.” Finally, from the preceding considerations, I will conclude : First—That the three parasites removed from the patient in ward 8, Charity Hospital, are the larvae of an oestrus of the order of the dermatobia (Brauer), which is a native of Honduras, Central America. Second—That these specimens are in all likelihood rep- resentatives of a species allied to The dermatobia noxialis (cuterebra noxialis,' Gaudot), though presenting marked ‘differences between them! Third—That in removing these parasites from the skin the best method is that of expression (squeezing), com- bined with a small oblique incision into the orifice of the larval sinus, assisted by the toxic influence of tobacco locally applied in the shape of extract, poultice, hot ashes, etc. I