The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-06-19
AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.
A Boys Strange MeIady and Curious
Cure.

A Boys Strange MaIady and Curious
Cure.
The Chicago Telegraph says: Probably
the most wonderful phenomenon that
has ever come under the observation of
the medical fraternity of this city devel-
oped itself ut the Montcalm House, on
Erie street, in the person of a boy named
Herbert G.. Schwartz. Herbert is a boy
of German parentage, though born near
the town of Buckingham, in Tama
county, Iowa, The Schwartz family
Schwartz, the father, being man of
some fifty years of age. There are four
children, two girls and two boys. Her
bert being the oldest child. Mrs.
Schwartz has been dead several years.
Schwartz senior is farmer, and we'll
to-do, owning fine prairie farm of 100
acres in Tama county. Herbert has for
a number of years assisted at the farm
work, and was, until recently, stout,
healthy and intelligent boy.
Last April Herbert and his brother
Fritz were playing together in the farms
barn, having turned the horses in after
days plowing. At supper that evening
young Schwartz complained of queer
feeling in his chest, and coughed con-
siderable. Thinking that the boy had
caught cold, but little attention was paid
to the matter, and for the two or three
succeeding DAYS, though the cough con-
tinued and he complained of an oppres-
sive feeling in the left chest, his father
used the simple country remedies for
ordinary cold. These seemed to have a
beneficial effect, for the cough left him,
though he still complained of the singu-
lar and unaccustomed feeling in the
chest.
In the latter part of April Herbert's
appetite deserted him, and he COM
menced to lose flesh to such an extent
that from a stout, healthy farm lad he
dwindled down to nothing more than a
living skeleton.
Various remedies were tried, and local
medical advice taken. The physicians
called were of the opinion that hasty
consumption had set in, and but little
hopes were offered of his recovery. In
the latter part of last month another
| singular feature added itself to the
afflicted youths distress.
The pain in his chest became more in
tense, and added to it there was now an
irritating, tickling sensation in the throat,
as though some foreign matter had
| lodged there that demanded removal.
This induced continuous cough, until,
at last, the sufferer had hardly mo-
ment's release from the attack.
Every one connected with the boy
gave him up, and his family already felt
that the doom of speedy demise
was inevitable. With last grasp at
hope Mr.. Schwartz brought his son to.
this city and summoned the skill of Drs,
Charles A. Andrews and Ernest Solo
mon to arrest, if possible, the fell destroy
er. At first both DR.. Andrews and DR..
Col. %hnA "a e
hasty consumption, and extended no
hopes to the distracted parent But
Friday morning, while Herbert was un-
dergoing one of his worst paroxysms of
coughing, a light, OF an intuition sud-
| denly forced itself upon DR.. Solomon.
Requesting the boys father to assist him,
| he suspended the patient by the heels
near window, with a strong light
thrown down his throat. Without
| whispering his suspicious or Intentions
the doctor, with the aid of instruments,
made an examination of the throat, so
far as the eye could penetrate; and his
investigation was rewarded by Won
derful discovery. A foreign body was
discovered partially implanted in the
mucous membrane of the windpipe.
Having firmly seized upon it with his
instrument, despite the struggles of the
| pitJlclt, III. pOlOlllOu uTcW lUIbn Il yer
minated kernel of wheat, with growing
stalk seven and one-quarter inches long!
The stock was of brownish-red color,
while the tendrils of the terminated
kernel were massed in clotted blood. A
violent hemorrhage ensued, that required
much trouble to check, but young
Schwartz, though very weak, is now
much better, and bids fair to rapidly re-
cover. The only explanation of this
most singular incident is that Herbert
swallowed a grain of wheat while play.
ing in the barn with his brother, and
that the kernal. instead of taking the
natural channel, reached his left lung
and there remained and sprouted. 1t is
certainly one of the most extraordinary
cases on record. DR.. Solomon has pre-
served the wheat in vial, where hun.
dreds of the curious viewed it in his
| office