Battlefield

The medicinal benefits of maggots were observed in World War I .Those wounded soldiers who were left in open field or trenches (sometimes for days) had their wounds "cleaned" by maggots (which consumed the dead tissue that bacteria, etc would normally feed on) and were able to heal (and keep) their damaged appendage. Soldiers brought back to field hospitals frequently died or lost the damaged appendage due to massive infection. Maggots play an antiseptic, antimicrobial role in wound healing and should not be feared as causative agents of infection.

Offered by Ed