ut appreciably wetting the sand on which it
lies. Fluids come from it, certainly, for every organized body is a
sponge swollen with water; but the liquid discharge is so slow and
restricted in quantity that the heat and the dryness of the air disperse
it as it appears, while the underlying sand remains dry, or very nearly
so. The carcass becomes a sapless mummy, a mere bit of leather. On the
other hand, do not use the wire gauze cover, let the flies do their work
unimpeded; and things forthwith assume another aspect. In three or four
days, an oozing sanies appears under the animal and soaks the sand to
some distance.

I shall never forget the striking spectacle with which I conclude this
chapter. This time, the dish is a magnificent Aesculapius' snake, a yard
and a half long and as thick as a wide bottleneck. Because of its size,
which exceeds the dimensions of my pan, I roll the reptile in a double
spiral, or in two storeys. When the copious joint is in full process
of dissolution, the pan becomes a puddle wherein wallow, in countless
numbers, the grubs of the greenbottle and those of Sarcophaga carnaria,
the Grey or checkered flesh fly, which are even mightier liquefiers. All
the sand in the apparatus is saturated, has turned into mud, as though
there had been a shower of rain. Through the hole at the bottom, which
is protected by a flat pebble, the gruel trickles drop by drop. It is a
still at work, a mortuary still, in which the Snake is being drawn off.
Wait a week or two; and the whole will have disappeared, drunk up by the
sun: naught but the scales and bones will remain on a sheet of mud.

To conclude: the maggot is a power in this world. To give back to life,
with all speed, the remains of that which has lived, it macerates and
condenses corpses, distilling them into an essence wherewith the earth,
the plant's foster mother, may be nourished and enriched.

CHAPTER X. THE GREY FLESH FLIES

Here the costume changes, not the manner of life. We find the
same frequenting of dead bodies, the same capacity for the speedy
liquefaction of the fleshy matter. I am speaking of an ash-gray fly,
the greenbottle's superior in size, with brown streaks on her back and
silver gleams on her abdomen. Note also the blood-red eyes, with the
hard look of the knacker in them. The language of science knows her as
Sarcophaga, the flesh eater; in the vulgar tongue she is the grey flesh
fly, or simply the flesh fly.

Let not th