240 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



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. Fol- 

 lowing 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 of these draughts she 

 swallowed the eggs of insects, cannot be affirmed ; 

 but for several years she continued to throw up incre- 

 dible numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of the 

 churchyard beetle (Blaps mortisaga, FABR.). * Of 

 the larvae of the beetle,' says Dr Pickells, ' 1 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 im- 

 mediately 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 m-olitor), I 

 saw myself, thrown up at different times. The aver- 

 age size was about an inch and a half in length, and 

 four lines and a half in girth. The larvre of the dip- 

 terous insect, though voided only about seven or eight 

 times, according to her account ; came up almost 

 literally in myriads. They were alive and moving.' 1 

 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/ &e. 



