The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1874-08-01
A NATURAL WONDER,
4 Young Girl Carries n snake i'm Her SIOm
ach Four Years.
Murfreesboro (Tenn.) News, June &c.

A Young Girl Carries n snake i'm Her Srom
/ ach Four Years.
Murfreesboro (Tenn.) News, June 26.
For many months past it has been re-
ported that young lady living neal
Christiana, in this county, was afflicted
in a very singular manner, and great
many said she was possessed either OF
IA devil or a reptile of some character
which was located in her stomach.
Many had been the remarks tn ereabout,
some affirming its possibility, while
others =" hooted" at the bare mention of
such thing. The interest had con-
timed to increase in regard to it until
at different times most all the physi-
clans in that end of the county had Wis
tied the afflicted young lady, and We
might say without exaggeratiOn two
thirds of the people of the same section.
The grand elimination, however, was
reached on Friday night last Goth of
june, by it's extraction from the stom-
ach of the girl by DIR. j. NJ Burger of
the heretofore moOted ching" which
was nothing more or less than live
snake twenty-five inches long and two
thirds Of an inch in diameter. The
girls name is Thankful Taylor. Her
father is dead, and her mother has since
married her present husband, William
Carroll. Her age is twenty 1.-TWO years.
and since her infancy she has been more
or less delicate at times. She was first
troubled with the snake about four
years ago, and since that time it has
continued to grow worse, until for the
past two years her life has been almos
tInu1IlU Of l.,
When she felt the motions of the snake
III her stomach they were frequently
perceptible across the room, with an
ordinary bed quilt over her, aad were
generally upon one or the other side of
her stomach. She would SUITE, great
pain, and frequently SO severe it would
produce commissions she would lose
her mind, and remain sometimes in
death-llke state for twenty-folr or
thlrty-six hours. At times her
suffering was so great her
skin would split open, and her
flesh upon her head split so much it be-
came necessary to cut her hair off very
short, i'll which condition it is now, and
the scars are perceptible to ALL She
frequently remarked on the 26th it was
coming up soon, and just after dark or
that evening, as the family were seated
about the door, and some Of them on
the outside, she arose from her pallet
on the floor, rushed out of the west
door of the cabin, and in a strangling
manner, ran some fifteen or twenty
steps, and fell upon her knees. The
family, suppOsing her in spasm. ran
after her, and her little brother. reach
ing her first, calling back to his mother
that that thing was in siss mouth"
Her stepbrother caught and held her
from behind, she all the while making
desperate efforts to get loose, and APP
pearing strangling to death. Her
mother finding "the thing" in her
mouth, as though it had come up head
foremost, and III going back the same
way had doubled ITSELF making a loop,
in which she put her finger and held it
until the doctor came, who had been
sent for instantly, and arrived III few
minutes, from his home, some 400 yards
off the way he had to come. The
mother, remembering the doctors in
functions, held fast, and as it tried to
worm itself bach into the stomach she
called upon her daughter to close her
teeth upon it, which her daughter says
she did, and there is certainly upon the
snake, Just where she would have taken
hold, unmistakable signs of marks that
might have been made by teeth. SO
soon as the doctor arrived he took hold
Of 1t and drew it out, it making efforts
to get down, but coming up with the
use of but little strength.
DIR. S. NJ. Burger, a practising
physician III said county and State,
makes the following statement upon
his professional honor:
"That just after dark on the night of
the Goth of June, 1874, [ was sent for in
a great hurry to attend Thankful Tay-
lor, and IN company with Miss Jennie
Baton, l at once proceeded to her
home, short distance off, and found
her upon the ground, with her step
father holding her, and her mother
holding to something in her mouth. [
at once took hold of it and extracted it,
which proved to be a living snake,
twenty-three inches long and two
thirds of an inch in diameter. The
girl, when [ reached her, was in
strangling condition, but was instantly
relieved upon its extraction 1t APP
peared, from the position [ found the
snake, it had come up head foremost,
and i'll attempting to go back was caught
with its head down the aesophagus, [
should think six or eight inches. The
reptile lived four or five minutes, and
was covered with light mucous sub
stance. [ am satisfied the snake came
from the stomach of the girl, and was
satisfied, from the beginning of my
treatment of her in January last, that
she was afflicted with a reptile of some
character in her stomach. She now
seems perfectly recovered, and is able
to walk about, to go to church, or
anywhere, which she has not been able
to do before since [ began to treat her. !"
J. NJ BURGER, NJ. d.