MAGGOTS IN NOSE OR SO-CALLED VERMES NASI. By Sab-Assistant Surgeon Dr.
T. IS. 13.
Brown,
College, gives a short but Report of
in his Annual
para. 33. As to their
Bhaavanee
Doss, Rawulpindee.
Principal of the Lahore Medical very interesting description of maggots, the Mayo Hospital for 1872, page 5, the
origin he says "there can be no doubt that these produced from egg3 deposited by flies in the injured parts, and that they are also sometimes developed in the nose without any solution of continuity having been previously animals
are
visible." But what attracts the flies to an uninjured nose is not exNow, as far as my own experience on the subject goes, it seems probable that the attraction is due to bleeding from the nose which so often precedes the appearance of maggots, if
plained.
has not been taken to protect the organ from flies. regards treatment, maggots in the nose are not
care
As
so easily destroyed by turpentine and carbolized oil, nor their subsequent removal by forceps so painless as Dr. Brown states. On the contrary, I have sometimes found the repeated syringing of the already irritated nose by medicines, such as turpentine, carbolic acid, caustic solution, tincture of iodine and 30 on; increasing the mischief ; the present inflammation of the nose and the parts around getting worse and the extraction of the dead animals by forceps augmenting the agony of the sufferers. Nay, I remember cases even ending fatally under this kind of treatment. The most effective and at the same time soothing remedy for vermes nasi is, as I have observed in practice, chloroform which acts almost specifically. No sooner are a few drops of the drug, say from 2 to 5, poured into the affected nostril or nostrils as the case may be, that the animals begin to rush out in numbers, as if suffocated by tho nauseating odour of chloroform, whilst some that happen to come in direct contact with the medicine and consequently die inside the nose, drop off on a fit of sneezing which is generally occasioned by the movements of those striving to get out. Tho attending inflammation gradually subsides, specially so if the parts be meanwhile fomented by poppy decoction ; and the tormenting pain diminishes, owing, no doubt, partly to the removal of the cause and partly to the soothing action of the chloroform
the irritated mucous membrane. or four applications, each at
on
Three
have in my hands animals.
proved quite enough
an
to
interval of 12
get
hours,
rid of all these
The after-treatment consists in
syringing out the nose twice lukeworm lotion of carbolic acid, say 1 to 50 of water, with a little alum added to it. This effectually removes all the foetid smell from the nose and also assists in the healing of the ulcerated mucous membrane as well. for
a
few
days by
a
During the treatment a piece of muslin hung over the face patient, with holes cut opposite the eyes in order to look through, answers admirably for the prevention of flies having of the
any further access to the nose. 1 may also add that since the year 1868, when I became aware of the value of chloroform in this affection, many cases have been thus treated without a single failure. Chloroform is equally beneficial in the management of maggots
firs^
.
attacking
the various other parts of the
body.
Sub-Assistant Surgeons.?The title of sub-assistant surgeon has now, we are glad to announce, become obsolete. This class of officers is in future to be denominated assistant surgeon.