Extraordinary Death of a Child

1897

A two-year-old child has just died in the Children's Hospital from a cause which is believed to be absolutely unique. It was the offspring of people living in Queen's Park, Harrow Road, and showed every sign of health until it was six weeks old. Then it began to manifest symptoms of pain and was taken to a doctor who, however, was unable to find any cause for the brain trouble to which the symptoms pointed. Other doctors who were consulted were also puzzled and eventually the child was taken to the Children's Hospital. The physicians, however, were hopelessly baffled, and all they could do was to soothe the child's pain.

After death, an examination revealed a beetle in the region of the brain directly above the cribriform plate, in a cavity which it had made. The medical men are convinced that the insect must have entered the child's nostril (probably while it was asleep) and that is then made its way through one of the small holes which pierce the cibriform plate of the ethnoid bone, whis in a young child is cartlaginous. There must, they think, have been some disease of the bone which enable the insect to pass through . . .