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Aural myiasis in Ancient Rome: Celsus and the ear maggots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2022

S Agnelli Open the ORCID record for S Agnelli [Opens in a new window]  and
R B King
S Agnelli*
Affiliation:
One Health Center of Excellence, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
R B King
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
*
Corresponding author: Sara Agnelli; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Objective

Although today there is extensive scientific literature on aural myiasis, a historical study of the subject has yet to appear. This short article reports the first description of aural myiasis in the Western medical literature.

Methods

Methods involved: (1) scholarship review of ear diseases within Ancient Greek and Roman medical texts (L'Année philologique); (2) linguistic analysis for text identification through the Library of Latin Texts, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae and the Loeb Classical Library; and (3) translation of the Latin texts that described cases of aural myiasis with commentary.

Results

To our knowledge, the earliest case of aural myiasis in Latin medical literature is reported by the Roman encyclopaedist Celsus (first century CE). In his De Medicina, he describes cases of Wohlfahrtia magnifica maggot infestation of the ear and how to treat affected patients.

Conclusion

Despite present advances in otology, we believe that much insight can still be gained from this ancient example of medical history in ear diseases. A more comparative analysis of the subject is to be considered in the future, which will provide more data from different cultures and times.

Keywords

Myiasisotolaryngologyearhistoryancienthistory of medicine
Type
Main Article
Information
The Journal of Laryngology & Otology , Volume 137 , Issue 12 , December 2023 , pp. 1345 - 1348
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of J.L.O. (1984) LIMITED

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Footnotes

Dr S Agnelli takes responsibility for the integrity of the content of the paper

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