'When the body came to be laid out, it appeared all over
discoloured or spotted; and it might, in the most literal sense,
be said, that his flesh rotted on his bones before he died.'
At the request of the sheriff, the surgeon (a Mr Pegler) who
attended the unfortunate man, sent in the following report:--
'Sir,--You desire me to acquaint you, in writing, with what I
know relating to the melancholy case of the late Richard Parsons;
a request I readily comply with, hoping that his sad catastrophe
will serve to admonish all those who profane the sacred name of
God.
'February 27th last I visited Richard Parsons, who, I found, had
an inflamed leg, stretching from the foot almost to the knee,
tending to a gangrene. The tenseness and redness of the skin was
almost gone off, and became of a duskish and livid colour, and
felt very lax and flabby. Symptoms being so dangerous, some
incisions were made down to the quick, some spirituous
fomentations made use of, and the whole limb dressed up with such
applications as are most approved in such desperate
circumstances, joined with proper internal medicines. The next
day he seemed much the same; but on March the 1st he was worse,
the incisions discharged a sharp fetid odor (which is generally
of the worst consequence).
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