Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-04-15
CFrom the Philadelphia Ledger.1
AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.


snake existing in the stomach of d man.
When about Is years ofage, he stopped
TO drink at a spring in HE field, and while
drinking, felt sensation resembling that
produced by solid substance gliding
down his throat. II caused no pain or
uneasiness at the time, and he supposed
it 10 be piece Of grass or some other
harmless substance. About six weeks
afterwards, he felta singular sensationin
the stomach, resembling the movements
ofa living animal, and sometimes attend
ed with unpleasant irritation or titulation,
Especially just before meals, and when
he had been long time without food.
Immediately, and for several hours after
a full meal, all unpleasant sensation SUBJ
sided. These symptoms continued to
increase till the thirty-fifth year Of the
patient, which he has recently complet-
ed; he suffering almost constant uneasi-
ness, and sometimes excrutiating pain.
His appetite was very irregular, being
sometimes so small that he would not
consume more than an ounce of solid
food daily for a week; and at other times
it was so voracious, that he would eat
five pounds of beef daily for month";
One remarkable symptom was, that dur
ing these periods Of absteniousness, he
gained flesh at the rate of ten pounds
weekly, and during the periods Of vora-
city, he lost it in still greater degree.
and was sometimes exceedingly emacia-
ted. While gaining flesh under this loss
of appetite, his pulse was irregular, the
digestive organs much deranged, his
sleep disturbed, and sometimes entirely
suspended for forty-eight hours. He
suffered severely from pain in the occip-
ital regions of the head, in the shoulder
blades, the thumb of the left hand, and
the great toe ofthe right foot. His COM
plexion was of cadaverous paleness, and
he was subject nightly, to profuse COLI
quatlve sweets. But while losing flesh
under voracous appetite, all the lunc-
tons were performed with regularity;
his pulse was regular, his sleep sound,
and his complexion was of a healthy hue,
inclining to be tiorid. In the mean time
the abdoman increased greatly in size,
and motion like that of cat in bag,
was apparent to the hand when laid up
on the region of the stomach. But he
was at all times subject to fainting fits Of
peculiar kind Sometimes he dropped
down suddenly, without sense or motion.
At other times he nearly fell, but recov-
cred Immediately, though always with
prostration of strength for some hours
afterwards. The sensation, as he de-
scribed it, was that ofa violent blow with
in the stomach and very much like that
produced by an electric shock, excepting
being more local.
Such extraordinary symptoms denot-
ed some extraordinary cause of distur-
bance. He had been for ten years un-
der the care of his family physician, and
had been subjected to various modes OF
treatment without any abatement of those
symptoms. He had taken the most ac-
tive emetics, and the most drastic ca
thartics, without any good effect. When
arterial action was high, he was bled Co
piously, sometimes losing sixteen ounces
daily for three days successfully. When
it was low, the most powerful stimulants
were administered, opium, ether, brandy,
bark, being sometimes exhibited, each in
sufficient quantities TO kill a man of or
binary health and strength. All the
while he insisted that some living animal
was in his stomach, and related the in
cident at the spring, and his subsequent
sensations. His physician was incredu-
lous, saying that he had read of such
things, but did not consider any case
well authenticated, or believe that any
animal could resist the solvent power
of the gastric fluid in the human stomach.
The patient, finding every unpleasant
symptom increasing, resolved to seek ad-
ditional aid, and consultation was or
dered. Five of our most eminent ply
scians attended, and after minute ex-
animation, came to the conclusion that
the conjecture of the patient was proba-
BILE; for, though neither of them had ever
witnessed case of a living animal in the
human stomach, yet several cases were
recorded which they considered authen-
tic. They also said that comparative
anatomy furnished analogies; for living
frogs, toads, and fishes, had been found
in the stomachs of snakes, many hours
after they had been swallowed, and that
this proved the power o. the vital prin-
ciple in resisting, to some extent, the
gastric power Of solvent fluids.
Having assumed this hypothesis as
probable, they next proceeded to act
upon it.. They rejected all medicines,
very properly concluding that the vital
principle could resist the solvent power