Note 114 — Chapter XV

The maggots can be produced alive from the parent fly by pressure upon the lower part of the abdomen; the annoyance of these flies is great during the summer season; depositing their progeny upon every thing, even blankets. Specimens of natural history, in the preparation of which arsenical soap had been used, the larva of this fly has been deposited, and found lying dead in clusters, from the effects of the poison. This renders dissection so difficult during the hot season of the year, and for some portions of the anatomy it is the only time for examining them in the recent state. I have even seen game “blown” a minute after it has been killed. During my journey, a man at one of the stations complained to me of a dull pain in his ear, and as if something was moving in it; he first felt it after sleeping in a hut a few nights previous. By pouring brine into the ear, a large white maggot crept out, and afterwards some smaller ones. The ear being well washed out, he suffered no more pain or inconvenience; no wound or disease of the ear appeared to exist.