The Greenbottles 



brood creates a sort of mist with the crossing 

 and criss-crossing of its trails. The control- 

 tube, on the contrary, keeps dry, proving that 

 the moisture in which the worms move is not 

 due to a mere exudation from the meat. 



Besides, the work of the maggot becomes 

 more and more evident. Gradually, the flesh 

 flows in every direction like an icicle placed 

 before the fire. Soon, the liquefaction is com- 

 plete. What we see is no longer meat, but 

 fluid Liebig's extract. If I overturned the 

 tube, not a drop of it would remain. 



Let us clear our minds of any idea of solu- 

 tion by putrefaction, for in the second tube a 

 piece of meat of the same kind and size has 

 remained, save for colour and smell, what it 

 was at the start. It was a lump and it is a 

 lump, whereas the piece treated by the worms 

 runs like melted butter. Here we have mag- 

 got chemistry able to rouse the envy of physi- 

 ologists when studying the action of the gas- 

 tric juice. 



I obtain better results still with hard-boiled 

 white of egg. When cut into pieces the size 

 of a hazel-nut and handed over to the Green- 

 bottle's grubs, the coagulated albumen dis- 

 solves into a colourless liquid which the eye 

 might mistake for water. The fluidity be- 



227 



