Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-03-09
HUMAN osTRlcHEs.
Who Folks Feed oniPins, Needles aud Jack
knives, and swaIIowcrs Of Coins and Pad
locks.


locks.
There died not very long ago, at
Prestwich Asylum, in England, mad
man in whose body were found 1,841
objects, to wit, 20 buckles, IA pieces Of
glass, 10 pebbles, 8 knotted strings, o
piece of leather, fish-hook, pin, 8
copper buttons, and 1,782 nails and
tacks. His madness was Of common
sort, after all. At the autopsy of con-
vict in the Brest galleys fifty two OBJ
jects were found in the stomach, in
cluding several knives and pieces Of iron
hoop four inches long. In March, 1909,
a sailor named John Cummings died in
Guys Hospital. London, whose expe-
riences completely eclipsed the perform
ances Of the boy described by Messrs.
Sawyer and Allen in "Pickwick" as adj
dicted to wooden beads. In 1893 he
had seen a French iuggler Swallow
ing" knives by the dozen, and in his
credulity believing that the juggler ac-
tually conveyed them into his stomach,
he undertook to rival him and swal-
lowed four clasp knives. Luckily, these
did not kill him, and he was satisfied to
rest on his laurels until March, 1906,
when at Boston he was one day tempted,
while drinking, to boast Of and repeat
his performance. In the. course OF the
evening he swallowed six knives, and
when the next morning crowds of visi-
tors came to see him he was induced to
swallow eight more. He paid dearly
for his frolic; for he was seized with
constant vomiting and pain in the
stomach, and though by heroic measures
hewas relieved Of the knives, that organ
was irretrievably ruined. But all his
suffering did not suffice to cure him OF
his folly, for at Spithead in December,
1905, being somewhat tipsy, he resumed
his boastfulness of being able to swal-
low knives, and to amuse the ships
company swallowed nine clasp-knives,
some of them of large size. Again he
became i'll, and was in the hands Of the
ships surgeon for several months, dur
ing which portions of knives were dis
charged. At length he was admitted as
a patient at Guys Hospital, and in
March, 1909, he died in state of ex-
treme emaciation.
A milder form of this disease is the
fondness for pins and needles. DR..
Stephenson. Of Detroit, reported in 1877
the case Of q woman of seventy-fve,
whom he had relieved of pin swal-
lowed forty-two years before while pick
ing her teeth. Siloy has recorded the
case of a woman who made pins
and needles her daily diet, and
from whose body 1,50O Of these
articles were taken after her death.
Another case, almost as striking, said
the London Lancet, about a year ago,
has been recorded by DR.. Gillette (1674)
that of girl in whom, from time to
time, needles were found beneath the
skin, which they perforated. and were
removed by the fingers or forceps.
Concerning the way in which they got
into the system no information could be
extracted from her. She was carefully
watched by DR.. Lepaulmier, and in the
course of eighteen months no less than
three hundred and twenty needles were
extracted, all being about the same
size. The largest number which escaped
in single day was sixty-one. A cur
ious phenomenon preceded the escape
of each needle. For some hours the
pain was severe, and there was consid-
erable fever. She then felt o sharp
pain, like lightning in the tissues, and
on looking at the place at which this
pain had been felt the head of the nee
die was generally found projected. The
needle invariably came out head fore
most. No bleeding was occasioned,
and not the least trace of Inflammation
followed. That little weight is to be
attached to the place at which the
needles escape as proof Of their mode OF
introduction is evident from case re-
corded by Villars of girl who swal- 4
lowed large number Of pins and nee
dies, and two years afterwards, during
a period of nine months, 200 passed out
of the hand, arm, axilla, side of thorax,
abdomen and thigh, all on the left side.
The pins, ,curiously, escaped more readily
and with less pain than the needles.
Many years ago case was recorded by
DR.. Otto, of Copenhagen. in which 495
needles passed through the skin of
hysterical girl, who had probably swal-
lowed them during hysterical parox-
ysm; but these all emerged in regions
below the level of the diaphragm and
were collected in groups, which gave
rise to infammatory swellings of some
size. One of these contained 100 nee
dies. In 1878, DR.. Bigger described
before the Society Of Surgery Of Dublin
a case in which more than 800 needles
were removed from the body OF woman
who died in consequence of their pres
ence. It is very remarkable in how few
cases the needles were the cause Of
death, and how slight an interference
with function their presence and move
ment cause. NJ. Henri de Parville, the
well known French writer on science,
has described many cases Of this sort,
not few Of them Of sane persons. M.
Berenger-Ferau took needle from