The earthworm and the common housefly : in eight letters / by James Samuelson ; assisted by J. Braxton Hicks.

  • James Samuelson
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The earthworm and the common housefly : in eight letters / by James Samuelson ; assisted by J. Braxton Hicks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be seen adhering to the windows, walls, shutters, &c., in all parts of the room: the dead insect, although dry, and so friable as to crumble into dust upon the slightest touch, retains so far the attitude of life, that it is difficult, without touching, to believe that it is not a living fly on the point of taking flight. Insects in dying usually draw up the legs, and cross them beneath the body ; but in the case of the disease now under consideration, the dead body is supported upon the outstretched legs, whose feet retain their adhesive property, and by the protruded proboscis, with which the Fly would seem to be sucking; and by which, even when the feet may happen to be detached, the body is still retained in situ. The dead flies in this condition are always surrounded with a halo, about an inch in diameter, composed of a whitish dust, which upon examination is found to consist of the spores [seeds] of a fungus. The abdomen is much distended, and the rings composing it are separated from each other, the intervals being occupied by white prominent zones, constituted of a fungoid growth proceeding from the interior of the body. Further examination will show that the whole of the contents of the body of the Fly have been consumed by the parasitic growth, and that nothing remains but an empty shell, lined with a thin felt-like layer, com- posed of the slender mycelia of the innumerable fungi. “ This disease appears to have been long noticed, though of course, in the absence of sufficient micro- scopic assistance, its true nature was not at first E