240 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



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. Following this absurd 

 and disgusting prescription, she took from time to time i 

 large quantities of the draught ; some time afterwards, ] 

 being affected with a burning pain in the stomach 

 {CarcHalgia), she began to eat large pieces of chalk, 

 which she sometimes also mixed with water and | 

 drank. | 



Now, whether in any or in all of these draughts , 

 she swallowed the eggs of insects, cannot be affirmed ; 

 but for several years she continued to throw up in- 

 credible numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of 

 the churchyard beetle {Blaps mortisaga, Fabr.). 

 " Of the larvae of the beetle," says Dr. Pickells, *' I 

 am sure I considerably underrate, when 1 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. Up- 

 wards 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 lines and a half in girth. The larvae of the 

 dipterous insect, though voided only about seven or 

 eight times, according to her account, came up almost 

 literally in myriads. They were alive and moving." 

 Altogether, Dr. Pickells saw nearly 2000 grubs of 

 the beetle, and there were many which he did not 

 see. Mr. Clear, an intelligent entomologist of Cork, 

 kept some of them alive for more than twelve months. 

 Mr. S. Cooper cannot understand whence the con- 

 tinued supply of the grubs was provided, seeing that 



* The well-known author of " Zoological Researches," &c. 



