The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-03-03
A BOARDER'S AWFUL FATS.
Killed by Cherry Stone Sprouting in Hi
Stomach. Shooting Fibers INTO the
Abdominal Region.

stomach. Shooting Fibers into the
Abdominal Region.
A very singular case has lately come to
light in one Of the fashionable boarding
houses situated on Twenty. third street, next
door to the Catholic church of st. Vincent de
Paul. Washington and his cherry have been
ou,done. The facts are so curious as to give
them almost the color OF fiction yet they are
voucbed for by responsible parties. who have
studied the phenomenon from its inception
Last summer bright, healthy young man.
residing in the house in question, partook
freely of cherry PIE, a dish of which he was
exceedingly fond, and, by some inadvertance,
swallowed a cherry stone. He thought moth
ing of the occurrence at The time, as itcaused
HIM no material inconvenience at the time !;
but at the end of a week or ten days he was
seized with violent pains IN the stomach from
which the simple remedies at hand offered
him no relief 1t was pltable to witness his
sufierngs so intense and ezcrutiating did
they appear to be- The young man contin
ued to suffer, and grew thinner and paler day
by day At the end of six weeks he had be-
come so feeble that he was compelled to leave
his business and confine himself to bed His
mother, an eslimablc lady, who resided in
the interior of the state, was sent for and
nursed him asslduously day and night The
most dscouraging thing in the whole case
was that none of the physicians who were
called in could determine the character OF
his disease. The symptoms were entirely un'
ique. The young man, whose name was Hen.
derson-the Christian name being withheld
at the request of elalives-said that he cXper-
fenced sensation as if something were grad
ually spreading among and tying up his In
tcstines. The physicians arrived at the con
cIusion that he WAS afflicted with worms, and
treated him accordingly, but with no effect
Whatever the disease was, II seemed to batile
| the pharmacGpUla, and the doctors ana
the heartbrokcn mother were obliged To
stand idly by ana see young lender-
son die before their eyes. In the mean.
time his suffering increased. Sleep was al
most stranger to him, and he complained
more and more of the peculiar feeling of a
vitality in the inestines, distinct from his
own Alter lying for four months, he die !
! in great agony Weak as he was, he seemed
to be possessed of a fictitious strength, and al
the time of his eXerlGns IN the paroxysms ol
agony to which he subjected two men could
with difficulty hold him on the bed. At,ci
young Henderson, death, the case had eXcit
ed so much attention in medical circles, The
i consent of the mother was obtained To an au
topsy being made upon the body. Invita-
tons were sent 10 several physicians Of til,
city, and the Investigation commenced Of
what was to be "a casus cclebre in medica
histoi On opehing the body, incredible
las II may appear, il WAS discovered that The
cherry stone had sprouted in the stomach o
the unfortunate young man. The assembled
doctors could hardly credit the testimony o
their own eyes, palpablc although ii was be
fore them. BY some peculiar process thu
cherry stone, after having become lodged II
young HendersOn's stomach, had actually
sproued as thrifty rs ii il had been planted il
1.-The ground. The strange pains of the youns
man were now accounted for, for procecdin.
, from the cherry stone were shoots of tber
which had ramifieI through the inies,incs q
the victim, and in same instances, had collet
themselves tightly around them. In the vi
entity of the heart there were number o
these shoots, and one of them, larger than tn
rest in pressing upon this organ, had beel
the Immediate cause of death OF thcs
shoots there were in all fourteen, varying II
length from > to . inches. In color they wcr
white, with FAINT yellowish green tingc to
= wards the base The shoot which had press
ed against young IIcnderson's hear, was con
siderably thicker and larger than the resi-
and had a peculiar reddish tingc, which IN
=, others had not The shoots were so closel
: twined ami twisted around the inicStines tina
: il was found impossible 10 remove them, an'
so they have not been preserved 10 science
The case, however, was so entirely sui ger
eris that in all probability full and scier
life account Of il will be written and pul
llished by the physicians aud surgeons inte
! ested in IT. What has been recorded here
n plain unvarnisied statement of fact
? stripped of all technicalitios or speculation
I: IN. y. NetcUrg.