MEAT IN CLOSED FLASKS 33 
eggs made me think of those deposits dropped by flies 
on meats, that eventually become worms, a fact noted by 
the compilers of the dictionary of our Academy, and also 
well known to hunters and to butchers, who protect their 
meats in Summer from filth by covering them with white 
cloths. Hence great Homer, in the nineteenth book of 
the Iliad, has good reason to say that Achilles feared 
lest the flies would breed worms in the wounds of dead 
Patrocles, whilst he was preparing to take vengeance on 
Hector. 
Having considered these things, I began to believe that 
all worms found in meat were derived directly from the 
droppings of flies, and not from the putrefaction of the 
meat, and I was still more confirmed in this belief by 
having observed that, before the meat grew wormy, 
flies had hovered over it, of the same kind as those that 
later bred in it. Belief would be vain without the con- 
firmation of experiment, hence in the middle of July I 
put a snake, some fish, some eels of the Arno, and a slice 
of milk-fed veal in four large, wide-mouthed flasks; hav- 
ing well closed and sealed them, I then filled the same 
number of flasks in the same way, only leaving these 
open. It was not long before the meat and the fish, in 
these second vessels, became wormy and flies were seen 
entering and leaving at will; but in the closed flasks I 
did not see a worm, though many days had passed since 
the dead flesh had been put in them. Outside on the 
paper cover there was now and then a deposit, or a mag- 
got that eagerly sought some crevice by which to enter 
and obtain nourishment. Meanwhile the different things 
placed in the flasks had become putrid and stinking; the 
fish, their bones excepted, had all been dissolved into a 
thick, turbid fluid, which on settling became clear, with 
