The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-11-20
ECCENTRIC i PPETrTES

The People Who Have svvaIossed
q kntyss, swords Needles, Etc.
At a recent meeting of the Societe de
Medicine of Paris, recorded in the
Gazette des eHospitaux of September
10Th, some curious records OF cases of
foreign bodies IN the digestive passages
were related. NJ Lucifer cited the
case OF q yonng woman, a maniac, who
had several times tried TO commit sui
eide. On the first occasion she took
q decochon of two or three packets of
tobacco, which she had boiled for half
an hour, Another time she swallowed
two quarters of hundred pins, and bur-
led another quarter of a hundred In her
scalp. Finally she procured two hectic
grammes (nearly half pound Of gum
powder, set fire to it, and placed her
self over it. However, none of these
attempts resulted In anything but max
ing her ILL She passed great number
OF pins per annum, and it was at the
end OF two or three months that those
IN the scalp were discovered, and thirty
of them removed. At the end of three
months she was completely cured. This
fact tends TO confirm the relative i'm.
muuity from suffering which is peculiar
to thei insane. M. Peter wrote work
on the migration of foreign bodies In
the digestive passages, for which he
collected a certain number of cases.
Some Of them are as follows A Jug
gler having swallowed a sabre was
brought into the Charlie hospital. Sc
rlous consequences followed. Adhe-
sive inflammation ensued, resulting In
an abscess. The sabre became divided
into two parts, and the extraction was
performed in tEo operations. A sailor,
Tor half pint of brandy, swallowed a
knife, which he afterwards passed
easily. But one day the knife would
not pass, serious results came on, and
caused his death In three DAYS. The
knife was found, but the horn handle
had been Completely digested, and
there only remained vestiges of the five
or six blades it had contained. Another
case was that of a hysterical woman,
| who had swallowed packet of needles.
| of which 1896 issued from her breasts.
arms, chest, etc. NJ Renquet related
a case of strangulated hernia, operated
on by NJ. Maisonneuyes II which it was
ascertalned during the operation that
| ali the effects of strangulation had been
brought on by the presence of lark'f
| claw, which had been swallowed
| by the patient and had lodged across
the intestine. M. Forget drew atteD
ton to the preparations presented bS
! M. Gallard's house surgeon, from the
| body of a waiter, who, having entered
the hospital on one occasion in conse
I quence of having received some blows
on the chest, which brought on some
general symptoms, left cured. SooI
! after, however, he again came into thu
hospital for an abdominal affection, IL
which he succumbed. At the neoropsy
old adhesions between the peircardiun
and the corresponding wall of the lung
were found. These two organs Wert
1 held together by pin, of which thu
/ point issued into the interior of tn
pericardiuna, where it was perfectly free
1t but rarely touched the heart, on thu
surface of which was found a series O
concentric curves produced by the poin
of the pin, which inscribed the heart
movements on itself, inst ss the style
of a sphygmograph would have done
This case, besides being very interest
ing from a physiological point of view
proves that the swallowing Of single
pin viii sometimes cause death. III
! Durozier said that coins seemed to fine
easy passage through the digestive tube
| Thus, a man who came to the Hote
Dieu after having swallowed six twenty
franc pieces, passed them all, and re
covered without any bad symptoms.