(Vol. vi., pp. 221. 338. 466.; Vol. ix., pp. 29. 84. 276)
Is it quite certain that "no animal can live in the alimentary canal but
the parasites which belong to that part of the animal economy?" Being
ignorant of the matter I give no opinion, but would bring before your
readers' notice the following seemingly well-authenticated instance. I
quote from _Insect Transformations_, 1830, p. 239., a work put forth by the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
"That insects are, in some rare cases, introduced into the human
stomach, has been more than once proved, though the greater number of
the accounts of such facts in medical books are too inaccurate to be
trusted.[3] But one extraordinary case has been completely
authenticated, both by medical men and competent naturalists, and is
published in the _Dublin Transactions_, by Dr. Pickells of Cork.[4]
Mary Riordan, aged twenty-eight, had been much affected by the death of
her mother, and at one of her many visits to the grave seems to have
partially lost her senses, having been found lying there on the morning
of a winter's day, and having been exposed to heavy rain during the
night. When she was about fifteen, two popular Catholic priests had
died, and she was told by some old women that if she 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.
Following 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 these draughts she swallowed the eggs of
insects, cannot be affirmed; but for several years she continued to
throw up incredible numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of the
churchyard beetle (_Blaps mortisaga_). 'Of the larvæ of the beetle,'
says Dr. Pickells, 'I 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 immediately
by running into holes in the floor. Upwards of ninety were submitted to
Dr. Thomson's examination; nearly all of which, including two of the
specimens of the meal-worm (_Tenebrio molitor_), I saw myself thrown up
at different times. The average size was about an inch and a half in
length, and four lines and a half in girth. The larvæe of the dipterous
insect, though voided only about seven or eight times, according to her
account, came up almost literally in myriads. They were alive and
moving.' Altogether, Dr. Pickells saw nearly 2,000 grubs of the beetle,
and there were {524} 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 continued
supply of the grubs was provided, seeing that larvæ do not propagate,
and that only one pupa and one perfect insect were voided[5]; but the
simple fact, that most beetles live several years in the state of
larvæ, sufficiently accounts for this. Their existing and thriving in
the stomach, too, will appear the less wonderful from the fact that it
is exceedingly difficult to kill this insect; for Mr. Henry Baker
repeatedly plunged one into spirits of wine, so fatal to most insects,
but it revived, even after being immersed a whole night, and afterwards
lived three years.[6]
"That there was no deception on the part of the woman, is proved by the
fact that she was always anxious to conceal the circumstance; and that
it was only by accident that the medical gentlemen, Drs. Pickells,
Herrick, and Thomson, discovered it. Moreover, it does not appear that,
though poor, she ever took advantage of it to extort money. It is
interesting to learn that, by means of turpentine in large doses, she
was at length cured."