Report on the Diseases of Wheat. 



17 



came near the knee, when the flesh of her leg putrefied and came off 

 at the ankle with the foot, leaving the leg-hones bare. Her other foot 

 and leg were affected in a few days, and decayed nearly by the same 

 degrees and manner. Her thighs both swelled, and under her ham an 

 abscess formed. The surgeon, seeing no perfect separation, did, on 

 the 17th of April following, attempt to take off one of the limbs, near 

 the knee, just above the corrupted flesh, but such an effusion of blood 

 issued, as to stop his attempt; he afterwards took off both her legs 

 near the knee. She lived many weeks, and then died. 



" Mary, the mother, was taken, very soon after her daughter, with 

 the same kind of pain under her left foot, or, as she sometimes said, 

 in her left leg; her toes, foot, and leg were affected in the same man- 

 ner as her daughter's, and in a few days her other foot and leg also. 

 Both her feet came off at the ankles, and the flesh rotted from the leg- 

 bones, which continued bare about three months, and then rotted off. 

 Her hands and arms are benumbed, and her fingers contracted, but not 

 black ; she is now almost well, and likely to live many years. 



" Elizabeth, the next daughter, aged 14 years, was on the next day, 

 viz. Monday, January 11, 1762, seized only in one leg and foot, which 

 she could not set on the floor for three weeks, but stood all that time 

 upon the other, leaning against the chimney ; after which, being taken 

 in the same manner in her other foot, she lay down ; one foot mortified 

 and came off at the ankle, the other leg near the knee. 



" Sarah, the next child, aged 10 years, was taken on the same day as 

 her sister Elizabeth, in one foot, which mortified and came off about the 

 ankle. The toes of the other were affected, and broke, but healed again. 



" Robert, aged 7 years, was taken on the Tuesday or Wednesday 

 following, in both legs, which came off at the knees. 



Edward, aged 4 years, was at the same time taken in both feet, 

 which rotted off a little below the ankles. 



" An infant, aged two months, was taken from the mother's breast as 

 soon as she was seized with the disorder. It was put out to nurse, and 

 died within two months ; when dead, its feet and hands turned black. 



" John, the father of this unhappy family, was seized with the same 

 disorder, about three weeks after the first was taken, in both his hands. 

 His fingers became benumbed, contracted, and black. The nails of 

 some came off, and two of them broke, but healed again. He com- 

 plained much of darting pains in his hands, arms, legs, and back." 



The popular belief in the neighbourhood, to this very day, 

 supposes these unfortunate people to have been bewitched ; and 

 that they were thus visited as a judgment for their mal-practices ! 



In addition to the above, the event is commemorated on a 

 tablet, let into the wall of the church, containing the following 

 inscription : — 



*' This inscription serves to authenticate the truth of a singular 

 calamity which suddenly happened to a poor family in this parish, of 

 which six persons lost their feet by a mortification not to be accounted 

 for. A full narrative of their case is recorded in the parish register, 

 and Philosophical Transactions for 1762." 



VOL. II. c 



