WEBVTT - From the Vault: Bugs Under The Skin 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.480 Hey, are you welcome to stuff to blow your mind? 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.119 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.280 it's Saturday, time for the Vault, and today we got bugs. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.960 That's right. April is the cruelest month, and so here 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.120 we are with the first Vault episode of April, dealing 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.160 with imagine bugs under the skin and sometimes actual bugs 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.599 under the skin. That's right. So you know, if if 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.120 that makes you a little squeamish, maybe come back to 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.320 this one later. But if that makes you a little squeamish, 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:37.240 get over it and listen. Either way, we're gonna keep 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:43.720 going here. H stick with us if you have the guts. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.560 Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind from how Stuff 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:55.000 Works dot com. Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.560 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Robert, 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:00.800 what's the weirdest thing you ever got stuck up your nose? 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.480 I think I've been very fortunate. I know plenty of 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.679 other people who have tales of siblings getting odd objects 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.720 lodged up their nostrils, being a marble or I think 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.520 my brother in law had a piece of carpet stuck 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.959 up there something. You know, you hear all these stories, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.480 and luckily, I don't think I've ever had anything, um, 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.959 anything stuck in my nose, So unfortunate in that regard. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.680 You know, your mention of the marbles makes me think 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:28.480 about did you ever see that old episode of the 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.200 show Home Movies where they their take on the like 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.720 Judas pre supplemental messages. Thing is there's a rock band 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.839 who I think does a does a public service announcement 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.000 song called don't put Marbles in your nose, but it 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.720 also keeps saying put them in there now. I think 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:49.400 the worst, especially like childhood experience of anything going into 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.440 an unexpected orifice, would be um, when I had some 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.880 sort of small insect fly into my ear. Oh really, yeah, 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.920 which which the main distressing thing is that a little bug, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.360 once it gets inside your ear, is extremely loud. So 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.600 I do. I do remember that quite clearly. It's looking 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.400 at the outside from the inside, it's a horrible feeling. Yeah, 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.239 And I remember like my dad was there and he 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.000 jumped in and I guess it happened at the house 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.320 because they had some like rubbing alcohol and like they 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:19.880 poured a little bit of that into my ear. And 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.480 that took care of it. Well, that experience is going 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.080 to be a great jumping off point for our discussion today, 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.440 because I think we should start off by playing one 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.480 of my favorite games that we play on this show, 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.200 which is go into old medical journals and read some weirdness. 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.920 Oh yes, So I want to talk about a case 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.800 report that was published in December of eighteen thirty in 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.720 the medical journal The Lancet. This is a truly disturbing report. 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.640 So if you if you get picked out easily, you 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.200 know fair warning. So let us read from the Lancet. 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.880 A farmer's wife, twenty eight years of age, residing in 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.760 the neighborhood of Mets, had for a long time been 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.360 affected with an unpleasant itching sensation in the nose with 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.000 Cora's which means running nose, to which symptoms in the 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.560 year eighteen seven, violent headache exceeded so that she was 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.200 at length obliged to apply for medical aid. The headache 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.800 was irregularly intermittent, and generally began at the root of 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.440 the nose, in the middle of the forehead or at 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.280 the right frontal region, extending thence first to the right 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.440 side and then over the whole head. The attack was 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.160 accompanied by a great discharge of tears, and sometimes even 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.520 nausea and vomiting. The features were forcibly distorted, the jaws 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.120 firmly closed, and the eyes and ears so very sensible 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.400 that she could not bear the least light or any noise. 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.200 At other times she became delirious, pressed the head between 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.160 her hands, and ran about in a state of distraction. 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.760 The pain was, according to her statement, like the strokes 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.360 of a hammer, or as if something was perforating the skull, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.160 and the fits generally returned about twelve times in twenty 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.960 four hours. Sometimes the headache continued uninterruptedly for several days. 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.320 The corsa or running nose again existed during the whole period, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.840 and the discharge was occasionally very feted and mixed with blood. Okay, 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.320 so we're starting off pretty gross already. This poor woman 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.440 is suffering these terrible chronic symptoms. She's got the headache, 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.840 she's got the swelling, she's got the sensitivity and the 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.800 eyes and the nose and all that. Uh, and then 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.360 she's also got this discharge mixed with blood. It's always 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.080 distressing in any case to have fetid discharge. The idea 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:34.000 that it's fetted is very worrisome, Okay, so continuing, some 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:38.000 medicines were employed, but no regular plan of treatment was followed, 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.520 and it was not before a twelve month suffering that 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.839 this singular affection terminated after the expulsion of a worm 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.880 from the nose, which moved with rapidity and when placed 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.880 in water, remained alive for several days. It was afterwards 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.840 killed by being put in alcohol and then sent to 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.800 Monsieur Mareschal, who reported the case to the society. He 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.080 found the animal to be more than two inches in 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.160 length and one line in breadth. And I looked that up. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.560 Apparently a line is a unit of measure that was 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.520 not very well standardized. It probably means like a tenth 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.040 of an inch or twelfth of an inch, so not 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.760 not very wide, um, but two inches in length. It 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.640 had too antenna. Was so not a not a proper worm, right, 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.440 not a proper worm. Was of yellowish color, flat, and 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.840 consisted of sixty four rings on each of which were 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.000 two legs, So definitely not a worm. Uh. Mr Marshall's 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:36.320 subsequently transmitted the insect to Messrs Holandra and Russel, who 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.520 ascertained that it was a skulla pendra Electrica. Okay, so 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.559 if it had two legs per segment, Yeah, that sounds 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.520 an awful lot like a centipede. Right, you are, Robert, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.120 this is a centipede. We're talking about. This report alleges 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.920 that this woman had this chronic condition for more than 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.320 a year, which was alleviated when she finally blew a 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.760 centipede out of her nose. Still, that's got to be 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.279 pretty satisfied. Yeah. Yeah, talked about what is the is 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.960 there a word for that? The psychological thing where like 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.640 people are obsessed with like removing objects from their body, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.839 the satisfaction people get from like picking a huge booker, 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.200 or from from pooping a large poop I don't know, 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.760 but or popping a pimple too. Yes, I thought about 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:23.400 this on and off for years, and I would love 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.279 to explore it in an episode if there is enough 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.560 material out there about it, because clearly it is an obsession. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.880 Like their whole video channels on YouTube associated with with 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.520 this sort of thing. And um, yeah, And when I 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.240 hear people talk about, oh, imagine the virtual realms will't 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.480 happen in the future, and I'm thinking, well, yes, you're 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:46.200 gonna have your obvious sex and violence oriented uh experiences, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.600 but they're gonna be like whole virtual realms, just just 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.279 devoted to the popping of of surrealistic pimples. Yeah, what 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:00.000 is the grand theft auto of like visceral body purging experiences? Yeah? 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:01.800 Before I forget, I do want to give a hat 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.560 tip because I came across this story on the blog 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.720 of a British writer named Thomas Morris, who covers a 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.080 lot of horrifying medical history and is definitely worth following 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.640 if you're interested in this kind of stuff. So shout 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:15.600 out to Morris who what we will return to again 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:17.960 in a minute. But anyway, back to the centipede coming 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.080 out of the nose. So there are probably some good 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.520 reasons to question the details of this report. Right just 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.720 because it was published in a medical journal like the Lance, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.320 it doesn't mean it's necessarily true, especially this far back 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.120 in history. But we can we can come back to that. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.120 So the the insect alleged here, it's not actually an insect. 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.560 It is a centipede. It's the skull of Pendra electrica, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:43.360 a reportedly bioluminescence centipede. According to a catalog by Bozard 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.840 in Nature in eight quote a well known luminous insect. Again, 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.080 not an insect, but well known luminous insect whose light 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.680 is but rarely seen owing to the insect living underground 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.360 and in manure heaps. Okay, so that's how it would 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.640 have seen what it was doing up in her sinus maybe, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:02.680 or that's maybe that's how it ended up there, like 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.840 she was snorting manure. There you go. But the bottom 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.600 line is this, this report is that a woman had 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.120 a glowing centipede living in her nose for over a year, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.720 which is a bit far fetched. Yeah, I think so, 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.160 but I mean, it's impossible to know for sure, but 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.240 I'm I have a lot of doubts. But yeah, so 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.760 I wanted to explore more and then later we'll get 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.200 into the more general territory. I think of creepy Crawley's 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.600 getting into body orifices, and I think we're going to 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:33.520 be focusing primarily not on things that are saying obligate parasites, 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.199 because that's a more trodden ground. Right, you might understand why, 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.320 like say leech could get into the human anus because 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.840 it's seeking that kind of environment, right, or or certainly 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.960 indo parasites that even if they're not certainly there are 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.880 plenty of human indo parasites, but they're also are indo 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.440 parasites of other species that can end up in our bodies. 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.640 And even though they are not at home here, um, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.800 this home is very much like the home they desire. Right, 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.200 So we're not so much talking about like hookworms, tape worms, 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.560 human bot flies and all that, which we have discussed 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.679 in other episodes, but we're talking more today about creatures 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.120 that don't need to be in the human body and 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.280 wouldn't normally seek it out, but somehow they at least 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:19.400 reportedly end up there. So, coming back to the skull apendra, 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.560 centipedes of the genus skull Apendra can be truly awesome predators. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.600 They tend to step over what is for me one 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.480 of the most shocking and unpleasant of lines, which is 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:35.840 when invertebrates prey on vertebrates, that something something about that 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.760 always feels backwards and scary and not okay, I mean, 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:41.800 I mean part of it perhaps is that. And I 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.280 feel like this is kind of an undercurrent to to 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:50.760 this earlier example, is that invertebrates. Invertebrates will undoubtedly feast 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:54.440 upon vertebrates. You know, they are they are somer. Yeah, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.600 they're going to be some of the primary devours of 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:02.320 our of our deceased form, and and certainly older generations 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:06.800 that were more associated and more closely aligned with physical death, 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.720 they would have witnessed this more often, both in the 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.480 bodies of animals but also in the in in human 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.520 bodies from time to time. But I'm talking about predation. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.520 You're talking about you outright killing, which seems like they're 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:21.640 it's it's like this is they have crossed a line, 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.080 like the line being you shall eat us when we 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.040 are dead, but shall not do the killing right. It's 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.400 supposed to be like humans eating lobster is not lobster 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.600 cousins eating human cousins. I mean, that is clearly verboten. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.520 But it's just not It's just not verboten. It happens 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.760 in nature and there are examples of skull a pendra 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.080 that do this. So, according to a two thousand five 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.480 article in the Caribbean Journal of Science by Mulinary at 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.960 All quote, skull of pendrid centipedes prey on frogs and 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.800 toads up to nine millimeters long, small lizards, snakes up 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.520 to two dred and forty seven millimeters long, birds up 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.280 to the size of a sparrow, and both field and 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:05.200 house mice. So you've got some centipedes in this genus 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.320 that are getting down on birds. They're getting down on mice, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.920 but presumably due to size restrictions. I think if there 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:16.439 are actually any cases of skollapendreds getting in people's noses, 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.000 it's it's going to be not the ones that twists 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.720 their many legged bodies around mice and sparrows and eat 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.960 their warm blooded mammal flesh. Right that those would have 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.800 probably be too big to end up in the nasal cavity. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.920 Now back to Thomas Morris, the medical history writer who 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:32.800 brought this case to my attention on his blog. He 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.640 writes in his blog post that he thinks it's unlikely 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.400 that the centipede would have survived inside the woman's nasal 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.080 sinuses for as long as the report alleges, which is 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.480 more than a year. And I think that's I don't know, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.120 It's one of those things where it's hard to know 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.640 for sure, but that does seem like a likely objection 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.920 to throw right right, It's like, what would it be 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.280 eating in there? Uh? Could it really like survive in 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.120 there that long without getting blown out or killed in 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.880 some other way. Yeah, it just doesn't seem sustainable. On 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.480 the other hand, the report is detailed, it's published in 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.280 a reasonably reliable source, it does seem to be reported 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.520 by a physician. It just seems sort of inherently unlikely. 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.320 Then again, you know, there are all kinds of things 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.080 we go to. We can talk in a minute about 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.280 the possibility of hoaxes of confusion. I mean, what if 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.280 just like a centipede happened to get up in her 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.000 nose during the last day or so of an otherwise 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:29.120 bad nose inflammation period. That also seems unlikely. But so um, 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.160 this is not the only reported case of a centipede 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.200 up the nose. In fact, I came across a totally 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.640 separate case from an old medical archive, also dug up 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.120 by Thomas Morris on his blog. This was several years ago. Uh. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.160 This is from the first volume of Medical Essays and Observations, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.720 published in seventeen sixty four. So here's this case quote. 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.680 A woman of good heal constitution, meaning she was healthy 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.800 about thirty six years old, began to complain of a 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.160 fixed pain in the lower and right side of her forehead. 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.439 During the last two years, this pain became continual, accompanied 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.560 with convulsions, often depriving her of both her reason and rest. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.600 She was two or three times brought to death's door 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.800 by it. At the end of four years, after trying 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.439 several medicines to no purpose, and despairing of any relief, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.199 and yet not knowing what to do, she took to 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.480 taking repeat snuff so it's like tobacco snuff. She had 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.720 not taken the snuff for a month when Behold seized 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.240 one morning with a fit of sneezing and blowing her 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.600 nose after to her great surprise, she found a worm 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.760 rolled up in a little blood. This worm, when stretched 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.640 to its full length, was six inches long and but 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.800 two When it contracted itself, it was two lines broad 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.720 and one and a half thick, of a coffee color, 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.280 convex on one side and flat on the other. It 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.440 was of the centipede kind and had fifty six feet 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.480 on each side. It had two eyes, and both its 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.600 head and ale were armed with two forks. It lived 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.520 eighteen hours in an empty bottle, and three or four 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.880 hours after brandy had been put to it. The egg 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.839 that produced this worm in all probability was sucked in 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.480 along with the air she breathed, and carried after to 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.920 the frontal sinus, where it met with a proper need us, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.880 meaning nest, to give it both growth and increase. All right, well, 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.240 at least we have a on a hypothesis here of 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.640 how it could have wound up there. Right, Maybe, I 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.000 mean that seems well she sucked in the eggs somehow 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.680 and it hatched in there. That also, I don't know, 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.360 I'm not a centipede expert. That seems a little bit unlikely, 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.360 but it sounded like the the implication here was it 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:44.440 might the egg might have been in the snuff. At 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.800 any rate, there's there's at least a there's a there's 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.000 an attempt at explaining how it wound up in there. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.920 It's not like, oh God has has put a centipede 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.920 in thy head. It is clearly a spontaneous generation of centipedes. 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.800 You clearly we have we have a theory about it. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:01.760 We have an hypothesis about how it could have ended 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:03.760 up in there, and then the story of how it 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.920 ended up coming out. It's about to get weirder. Guess 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.239 what the reporting physician recommends as a treatment for centipede 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:15.040 sin us blowing blowing one's nose. Nope. Monsieur Letra, who 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.240 related the story, advises in all such stubborn cases as 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.600 will not submit to either external or internal means to 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.560 come to the trapan which may be employed with all safety. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.760 That's right, trepanning if the insect won't come out. Now, 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.240 we've talked about trepanning on the podcast before. What what's 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.720 going on here? You bring out the drill, that's right, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.400 we're talking about Usually usually the idea would be we're 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:39.160 going to drill a hole in the skull to relieve 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.520 pressure uh and to uh and and therefore a relieve 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.960 you of your symptoms. But I guess this is the 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.280 idea of like, okay, it needs that centipede needs out 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.880 of your head. It's not coming out through the naturally 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.280 occurring gateways. We shall make a new gateway in the 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.680 head for the centipede, right, I mean, this is almost 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:58.520 like the centipede is kind of taking the role of 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.160 the stone of madness in the medieval form here. Uh. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.960 Though again I want to allow I feel this is unlikely. 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.560 It's not impossible lady had a centipede in her sinus uh. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:13.400 He also recommends using oil and acrid plants to force 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.280 it out that maybe seems more reasonable. I would be like, 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.960 let's try that first. Yes, let's let's check those off 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.360 the list first. Okay, that's not all. I feel like, 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.480 who's the Who's the game show host who says that's 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.320 not all? You're gonna get more prizes? I don't know. 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.360 The cat in the hat says that, Okay, I might 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.720 a game show host. The cat in the hat, I'll 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:35.760 be the cat and hatn't say. That's not the last 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:37.560 of the centipedes up the noses, But we got more 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.880 for you, including with more tobacco association, so with the snuff. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.640 Third case documented right alongside the first one in this 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.520 In this source from the eighteenth century, Monsieur Melowe reported 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.800 that one of the king's household troops complained for three 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.320 years of an acute pain in the left frontal sinus, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.320 which extended to the eye of the same side, so 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.800 as to endange to his losing it. He had also 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.520 a buzzing noise in his ear to relieve which he 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.719 had some oil of sweet almonds put into it, and 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.600 in two days after he perceived in his left nostril, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.120 and itching and stinging, as if something moved there which 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.040 he could not discharge, but by putting his finger into 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:20.400 his nose, when behold, he pulled out a worm, which 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.359 ran swiftly on the palm of his hand, though covered 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.600 with a viscous matter and snuff of which this gentleman 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:30.200 took plenty. This worm was put into a tobacco box 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.400 with snuff in it, where it lived five or six days. 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.600 All the patient's complaints ceased after this worm came away. 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.240 The only difference between this and the former is this 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.560 this worm was six lines only long and had but 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.600 one hundred feet, but there was this singular. In both cases. 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.200 The former was thought to be expelled by the use 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:54.359 of tobacco snuff, whereas this subsisted three years with a 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.639 plentiful use of the same weed, and after its expulsion, 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.800 lived five or six days on the same same Alright, 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.720 So the idea here is the centipede lived for years 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.040 in this guy's head because he kept putting snuff in there, 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:10.200 and it was eating the snuff. It seems to be 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.919 at least partially the implication. I don't know about eating 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.800 the snuff. There seemed to be multiple reasons to doubt 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.240 the story, especially if you're taking on that detail about 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.840 the last one, like surviving by eating tobacco. Tobacco, of course, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:25.160 contains nicotine, which is a powerful poison. Like so many 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.280 of the drugs that humans consume on purpose recreationally, nicotine 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.040 is supposed to discourage animals from taking the from consuming 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.360 the plan and this is one of the reasons nicotine 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.000 can be used as a natural pesticide. However, I do 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.480 want to take a really brief digression just to point 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.160 out one fascinating creature I came across here that does 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.240 survive on tobacco and nicotine, and that is the men 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.040 Duca sexta. Robert, do you know about this one? I? No, 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.159 I wasn't familiar with the man Duca sexta. Oh, this 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.399 is great. So this is a moth of this finger 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.800 day family and in its larval stage, so meaning as 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:02.399 a caterpillar. This species is sometimes known as the tobacco hornworm. 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.760 So the tobacco hornworm eats the leaves of the tobacco plant, 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.760 and the horn hornworm has a special gene called c 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:13.879 yp six B forty six that allows it to metabolize nicotine. 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.639 And now there's a twist. It doesn't just metabolize the nicotine. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.600 It uses this tobacco in its diet to produce a 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.359 chemical defense sometimes referred to in the literature as toxic halitosis. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.640 It's killer tobacco breath. So when the hornworm is threatened 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.280 by a predator like a wolf spider, it can defend 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.120 itself by releasing nicotine through pores in its skin, which 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.240 drives away the predator. And this has been confirmed by 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.520 research that found that hornworms fed on low nicotine food 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.040 were more susceptible to being attacked by wolf spiders. But 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.199 at the same time, I do not think that a 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.680 tobacco hornworm was in the guy's sinus, right, Yeah, Yeah, 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.560 there's a big difference between the this this larva that 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.199 is you know, clearly it has evolved to feed on 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.760 the leaves of this plant versus the predator that is 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.840 the centipede. Okay, so we got doubts about all these reports, 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.680 but that that's three centipede in the nose reports. Now 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.760 you know what, I found one more old centipede in 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.640 the nose report. This one from the Journal of Laryngology 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.760 and Ontology by W. P. May m e y j 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.439 e s. I don't know how to pronounce that, but 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.840 I think this is a report from Amsterdam, and this 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:29.200 is from this report goes. A woman farm worker from 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.720 the countryside appeared to the physician with the complaint of 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.920 a headache over the right eye that had persisted for months, 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.000 combined with a chronic running nose. The doctor did not 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.280 immediately detect any major problems except for stuff like swelling 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.399 in the nasal cavity and conjunctivius or you know, inflammation 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:46.600 of the eyes. So to help less in the swelling 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.320 go down, the doctor ordered menthol with boric acid for 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.919 the woman to snuff up. Uh. Man, every time you 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.760 read these you're just like, wow, these old treatments are 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:01.439 boric acid. Um it. So she snuffed it up. A 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.840 few days later, the woman returned. Uh. After she has 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.320 snuffed up the menthol and the boric acid, she has 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.200 a fit of sneezing and quote found in her handkerchief 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.240 a small insects still alive. She had put it in 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.080 some brandy and took it to me. The insect, which 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.600 was about seven millimeters long, turned to be a centipede. Uh. Centipede, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.600 of course, is not an insect. But uh, this report 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.040 says after the centipede was sneezed out, all the woman's 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:31.240 symptoms went away. So it's difficult to tell how much 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.879 stock we should put into these stories about centipedes and 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.760 the human body. Apparently like reported by physicians to real 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.720 medical journals and publications. Uh. And unfortunately, as we will 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:43.640 explore in the rest of this episode, it is not 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:48.040 in principle impossible for insects, centipedes and other small creatures 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.600 to get inside a person's cranial cavities. That does happen, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.240 and we'll discuss more later. At the same time, these stories, 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.199 at least some of them, seem kind of suspicious for 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.880 the quality of how long the centipede was supposedly alive 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:06.680