June 3. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



523 



The Termination "-%." — Having gone over the 

 remaining letters H to Z, I send you the following 

 results : 



I leave this for the study of others. B. H. C. 



As B. H. C. could only find seven places in 

 Cumberland ending in -by, I take the liberty of 

 sending him a few additional names. Writing 

 from memory, I may very possibly have omitted 

 many more : 



Aglionby. 



Allonby. 



Alwardby. 



Arcleby. 



Birkby. 



Botcherby. 



Corby. 



Crosby. 



Cross Cannonby. 



Dovenby. 



Etterby. 



Flimby. 



Gamelsby. 



Glassonby. 



Harby. 



Harraby. 



Ireby. 



Johnby. 



Langwathby. 



Lazonby. 



Maughanby. 

 Melmerby. 

 Moresby. 

 Motherby. 

 Netherby. 

 Ormesby. 

 Ousby. 

 Outerby. 

 Parsonby. 

 Ponsonby. 

 Rickerby. 

 Scaleby. 

 Scotby. 

 Sowerby. 

 Tarraby. 

 Thursby. 

 Uekmanby. 



Uprightby, pronounced 

 Heaverby. 



Many names of places in Cumberland commence 

 with Cum, as our Cumbrian bard has it : 



" We've Cumwhitton, Cumwhinton, Cumranton, 

 Cumrangen, Cumrew, and Cumcatch ; 

 Wi' mony mair dims i' the county, 

 But nane wi' Cumdivock can match." 



From whence is derived the prefix Cum ? 



John o' the Ford. 

 Malta. 



NEWSPAPER FOLK LORE. 



(Vol. vi., pp. 221. 338. 466. ; Vol. ix., pp. 29.84. 

 276.) 



Is it quite certain that " no animal can live in 

 the alimentary canal but the parasites which belong 

 to that part of the animal economy?" Being 

 ignorant of the matter I give no opinion, but would 

 bring before your readers' notice the following 

 seemingly well-authenticated instance. I quote 

 from Insect Transformations, 1830, p. 239., a work 

 put forth by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge. 



" That insects are, in some rare cases, introduced into 

 the human stomach, has been more than once proved, 

 though the greater number of the accounts of such facts 

 in medical books are too inaccurate to be trusted.* 

 But one extraordinary case has been completely 

 authenticated, both by medical men and competent 

 naturalists, and is published in the Dublin Transactions, 

 by Dr. Pickells of Cork.f Mary Riordan, aged twenty- 

 eight, had been much affected by the death of her mother, 

 and at one of her many visits to the grave seems to have 

 partially lost her senses, having been found lying there 

 on the morning of a winter's day, and having been ex- 

 posed to heavy rain during the night. When she was 

 about fifteen, two popular Catholic priests had died, 

 and she was told by some old women that if she 

 would drink daily, for a certain time, a quantity of 

 water mixed with clay taken from their graves, she 

 would be for ever secure from disease and sin. Follow- 

 ing this absurd and disgusting prescription, she took 

 from time to time large quantities of the draught ; some 

 time afterwards, being affected with a burning pain in 

 the stomach (cardialgia), she began to eat large pieces 

 of chalk, which she sometimes also mixed with water 

 and drank. 



" Now, whether in any or in all these draughts she 

 swallowed the eggs of insects, cannot be affirmed ; but 

 for several years she continued to throw up incredible 

 numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of the church- 

 yard beetle (Blaps mortisaga~). 'Of the larvae of the 

 beetle,' says Dr. Pickells, ' I am sure I considerably 

 underrate, when I say that not less than 700 have been 

 thrown up from the stomach at different times since the 

 commencement of my attendance. A great proportion 

 were destroyed by herself to avoid publicity ; many, too, 

 escaped immediately by running into holes in the floor. 

 Upwards of ninety were submitted to Dr. Thomson's 

 examination ; nearly all of which, including two of the 

 specimens of the meal-worm (Tenebrio molitor), I saw 

 myself thrown up at different times. The average size 

 was about an inch and a half in length, and four ljnes 

 and a half in girth. The larvae of the dipterous insect, 

 though voided only about seven or eight times, accord- 

 ing to her account, came up almost literally in myriads. 

 They were alive and moving.' Altogether, Dr. Pickells 

 saw nearly 2,000 grubs of the beetle, and there were 



* See Good's Nosologia, Helminthia AM, and Study 

 of Medicine, vol. i. p. 336. 



f Trans, of Assoc. Phys. in Ireland, vols. iv. viii. and 

 v. p. 177. Svo : Dublin, 1824-1828. 



