The Sun.
London, England, 1822-10-10 00:00:00

SWALLOWING OF CLASP KNIVES.

In the quarterly number of " the Edinburgh
Philok?Phical Journal," for October, a few nutn-
bers of which.have arrived in London, there is
ari " account of -a.man who lived ten years, after
having sthaltorOcd a number of Clasp Knives."
The accountis draWn up by ALEXEt. MARCET,
M.D. F.R.S., late Physician to Guy's Hospital.
As it is a remarkable case, we shall give an ab-

stract of it. In June, 1799, John Cummings, an
American sailor, aged about 23, being with
his ship on the coast of France, and having gone
on shore with some of his ship-mates, about
two miles from Havre-de-Grace, he and his party

- -
directed their course towards a tent which they

saw in a field, with a crowd of people round
it. They found within the tent a man, who was
entertaining the audience by pretending to swal-
low clasp knives. They returned on board and
spoke •of what they had seen ; when Cummins,
who had been drinking freely, boasted that he
could swallow knives as well as the Frenchman.
Ile was challenged to do it. Thus pressed, and
though, as he afterwards acknowleded, not par-
ticularly anxious to take the job in hand, he did
not like to go against his word, and having a
good supply of grog inwardly, he took his own
pocket-knife, and on trying to swallow it, it
slipped down his throat with great ease, and by
the assistance of some, drink, and the weight
of the knife, it was conveyed into his
stomach. The spectators, however, were not
satisfied with one experiment, and asked the ope-
rator—whether he could swallow more ? his an-
swer was—all the knives on board the ship ;
-upon which three knives were. immediately pro-
duced, which were swallowed in the same way
as the former ; and by this bold attempt of a
drunken man (to use his own expressions) the
company was well entertained, for that night.
The next day he passed one of the knives which
was not the one that he.had swallowed first; and
the day afterwards he passed two knives at once,
one of them being that which he first swallowed.
The ether, according to his knowledge, remain-
ed in the stomach, but he never felt any incon-
venience from it. After this extraordinary per-
formance, he thought no more of swallowing
knives for the next six years. In March 18,05,
being then at Boston, in America, he was one
day .tempted, while drinking with a party of
sailors, to boast of his former exploits, adding,
that he was the same man still, and ready to re,
peat his performance. A small knife was there-
upon produced, which he instantly swallowed.
the course, of the evening he swallowed five
The next morning crowds of visitors
came to see him ; and in the course of that
day he was induced to swallow eight knives
more, making in all fourteen ! lie, however,
paid dearly for this frolic. He was seized with
constant vomiting and pain in his stomach; but,
as he related, between that time and the 28th of
the following month, he got rid of the whole of his
cargo. At Spithead, Dec. 4, in the same year, he
was challenged to repeat his feats, and' disdaining
to be worse than his word," in the coarse of the
evening he swallowed five knives. The ship's
company, next morning, expressed a great desire
to see him repeat the performance, and he com-
plied with his usual readiness ; and by the
encouragement of the people, and the assistance
of good grog, he swallowed that day, as he dis-
inctly recollects, nine clasp knives, some of whicl

More.

were very large ; and he was afterwards assured
by the spectators that he, had swallowed foul'
more ; which, however, he declared he knew
nothing about, being, no doubt, at this period of
the business too much intoxicated to have any
recollection of what was passing. This, however,
is the last performance recorded ; it made a total
of at least thirty-five -knives swallowed at dif-
ferent times ; and the last attempt ultimately
put an end to his existence. On the following
6th of Dec. he became much indisposed ; and
after various applications, about three months
afterwards, he felt, as he expressed himself, the
knives,"dropping down his bowels." He continued
dreadfully ill. In 1807, he was in Guy's Hos-
pital, under Dr. Babington ; and he there conti-
nued, intervals excepted, under Dr. B. and after-
wards under Dr. Curry, till March 1809. After
having gradually and miserably sunk under his
suffeang, he then died, in a state of extreme ema-
ciation. The account is followed by a letter from
Surgeon Larlh, who. was on board the vessel
where Cummings performed his last feat ; and by
Cummings' own Narrative, drawn up while in
Guy's Hospital. Many knives, and fragments
of knives.left this extraordinary character in the
course of 1807. Dr. Marcet's account does not
state whether the body was opened.

DESTRUCTIVE AND ,kLARMING FIRE AT BLACK
WALL.—About ten o'clock on Tuesday forenooi
the neighbourhood of Blackwall was thrown into
considerable confusion in consequence of a very
alarming fire breaking out in the extensive starch
manufactory of Messrs. Morris and Constable,
close to Squire Green's dock-yard. The build-
ings, which were very large, were composed for
the chief part of wood, -and had been only a
fortnight erected. An excise officer, who had
been on the premises in the morning, remarked
that the steam engine, by the aid of which the
starch was dried, was above heat, and this person
had hardly quitted the manufactory when the
flames burst forth with alarming fury, from the heat
of the engine having ignited some portion of the
wood in the drying room. A II efforts to save any part
of the manufactory were ahortive,all was reduced to
a heap of smoking ruins. The flames communicated
to the Ohl Hole public house to Mr. Kingsall's,
plumber, and glazier, and to the premises of Mr.
Groves, live stock feeder, all of which were ma-
terially damaged. The wind was very high at
the time, and drove some of the embers to Squire
Green's dock-yard, on the opposite side of the
way, which set on fire, and shortly destroyed, a
shed there, and did 'a good deal of damage to the
foreman's dwelling-house, and would in all pro-
bability have destroyed not only the whole yard,
but immediate neighbourhood, bad not the wind
shifted frotn that direction about eleven o'clock.
The greatest praise is due 'to the firemen and
neighbours for their exertions. The proprietors
of the starch manufactory were not insured,