1S8 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



Messenger in the following words : "On Thursday, June 

 25, died at Asbornby, {Lincolnshire,) John Page, a pau- 

 per 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 strolling about the neighbouring villages, subsist- 

 ing on the pittance obtained from door to door : the sup- 

 port 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, particularly 

 the meat, betwixt his shirt and skin. Having a consider- 

 able portion of this provision in store, so deposited, he 

 was taken rather unwell, and laid himself 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 proceed- 

 ed to devour the inanimate pieces of flesh, but also literal- 

 ly to prey upon the living substance ; and when the 

 wretched man was accidentally found by some of the in- 

 habitants, he was so eaten by the maggots that his death 

 seemed inevitable. 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 instantaneous death; 

 and in fact the man did survive the operation 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 



