Wales’s Trade in Leeches and Maggots

Re:Wales’s Trade in Leeches and Maggots by Isamu on Monday November 28, 2022 @06:33PM (#33781442)

>Like leeches, maggots have a long history in treating wounds. They are thought to have been used by the Mayan tribes of Central America and Aboriginal Australians. Their first recorded use by a doctor was during the American civil war.

>The first documented therapeutic use of maggots in the United States is credited to a second Confederate medical officer Dr. J.F. Zacharias, who reported during the American Civil War that:

"Maggots in a single day would clean a wound much better than any agents we had at our command ... I am sure I saved many lives by their use." He recorded a high survival rate in patients he treated with maggots.

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Re:Wales’s Trade in Leeches and Maggots by neilv on Monday November 28, 2022 @07:08PM (#33781774)

As children, in Outdoor School, we were taught that if you're lost in the woods with a wound, and maggots get into it, that's good, because they'll clean the tissue that would otherwise cause worse problems, so you should say "I love them there maggots."

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