Two Cases of Human Infestation by Larvae of Linguatula serrata.

Human infestation by Linguatula serrata, one of the family of linguatulids or so-called tongue-worms, is uncommon; the recorded cases appear without exception to have been diagnosed at necropsy, where the parasites were unimportant incidental findings. In an exhaustive survey of the literature we have been unable to find any published record* of a case of infestation by this parasite occurring in the British Isles, and the presence of its larvae in the liver in two patients in Birmingham is therefore of some interest, particularly as the specimen in one case was obtained surgically. Neither patient had ever been out of the country.