DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 139 



{Lincolnshire,) John Page, a pauper belonging- to 

 Silk-Willoughby, under circumstances truly singular. 

 He being of a restless disposition, and not choosing to 

 stay in the parish workhouse, was in the habit of stroll- 

 ing about the neighbouring villages, subsisting on the 

 pittance obtained from door to door : the support he 

 usually received from the benevolent was bread and 

 meat ; and after satisfying the cravings of nature, it 

 was his custom to deposit the surplus provision, parti- 

 cularly the meat, betwixt his shirt and skin. Having 

 a considerable portion of this provision in store, so 

 deposited, he was taken rather unwell, and laid him- 

 self down in a field in the parish of Scredington — when 

 from the heat of the season at that time, the meat 

 speedily became putrid, and was of course struck by 

 the flies : these not only proceeded to devour the in- 

 animate pieces of flesh, but also literally to prey upon 

 the living substance ; and when the wretched man was 

 accidentally found by some of the inhabitants, he was 

 so eaten by the raaggois that his death seemed inevi- 

 table. After clearing away as well as they were able 

 these shocking vermin, those who found Page con- 

 veyed him to Asbornby, and a surgeon was immediately 

 procured, who declared that his body was in such a 

 state that dressing it must be little short of instanta- 

 neous death ; and in fact the man did survive the ope- 

 ration but a few hours. When first found, and again 

 when examined by the surgeon, he presented a sight 

 loathsome in the extreme ; white maggots of enormous 

 size were crawling in and upon his body, which they 

 had most shockingly mangled, and the removing of the 

 external ones served only to render the sight more 



