Wished his flesh might rot

One Richard Parsons of Chalford in Gloucestershire, in playing at cards, wished his flesh might rot, and his eyes never shut, if he lost the next game. At night, in going to bed, he observed a black spot upon his leg, from which a mortification soon ensued, and he died in a few days in a very miserable condition.

A circumstantial and authentic account of the memorable case of Richard Parsons, as transmitted in a letter from William Dallaway, Esq; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, to his friend in London.

ON the 20th of February last, Richard Parsons and three more met at a private house in Chalford, in order to play at cards, about six o'clock in the evening. They played at loo till about eleven or twelve that night, when they changed their game for whist: after a few deals, a dispute arose about the state of the game. Parson's asserted with oaths, that they were six, which the others denied: upon which he wished, 'that he might never enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that his flesh might rot upon his bones, if they were not six in the game.' These wishes were several times repeated, both then, and afterwards. Upon this the candle was put out by one James Young, a stander-by, who says, he was shocked with the oaths and expressions he heard; and that he put out the candle with a design to, put an end to the game.

Presently, upon this, they adjourned to another house, and there began a fresh game, when Parsons and his partner had great success. Then they played at loo again till four in the morning. During this second playing, Parsons complained, to one Rolles, his partner, of a bad pain in his leg, which from that time increased. There was an appearance of a swelling, and afterwards the colour changing to that of a mortified state. On the following Sunday he rode to Minchin Hampton, to get the advice of Mr. Pegler the surgeon in that town, who attended him from the Thursday after February 27. Notwithstanding all the applications that were made, the mortification increased, and shewed itself in different parts of his body.

On Monday, March 3. at the request of some of his female relations, the clergyman of Bisley attended him, and administered the sacrament, without any knowledge of what had happened before, and which he continued a stranger to till he saw the account in the Gloucester Journal. Parsons appeared to be extremely ignorant of religion, having been accustomed to swear, to drink, (though he was not in liquor when he uttered the above execrable wish), to game, and to profane the Sabbath, though he was only in his 19th year; after he had received the sacrament, he appeared to have some sense of the ordinance; for he said, 'Now I must never sin again; he hoped God would forgive him, having been wicked not above six years, and that whatever should happen, he would not play at cards again.'

After this he was in great agony, chiefly delirious, spoke of his companions by name, and seemed as if his imagination was engaged at cards. He started, had distracted looks and gestures, and in a dreadful fit of shaking and trembling, died on Tuesday morning, the 4th of March last; and was buried the next day at the parish-church of Bisley. His eyes were open when he died, and could not be closed by the common methods; so that they remained open when he was put into the coffin: from this circumstance arose a report, that he wished his eyes might never close; but this was a mistake; for, from the most creditable witnesses, I am fully convinced no such wish was uttered; and the fact is, that he did close his eyes after he was taken with the mortification, and either dosed or slept several times.

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 stem rotted on his bones before he died.

Mr. Dallaway, having desired Mr. Pegler, the surgeon, to send him his thoughts of Parsons's case, received from him the following account:

"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 27 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 1 he was worse, the incisions discharging a sharp foetid ichor (which is generally of the worst consequence.) On the next day, which was Sunday, the symptoms seemed to be a little more favourable; but, to my great surprise, the very next day, I found his leg not only mortified up to the knee, but the same began anew in four different parts, viz. under each eye, on the top of his shoulder, and on one hand; and in about twelve hours after he died. I shall not presume to say there was any thing supernatural in the case; but, however, it must be confessed, that such cases are rather uncommon in subjects so young, and of so good an habit as he had always been, previous to this illness."

[This was almost certainly a case of septicaemia a century before its discovery].