St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-06-15
At Twenty She Became Ill
and Was Starving to
Death.
Her Disease Puzzled Doctors
AN Operation Decided
Upon.
A Growth Of Hair, Alive With
Vermin, Found in the Alb
domen.

was slowly but surely dragging him to
| the grave. The strength of habit, es-
| pecialIy if it is bad one. is within the
| experience of every one. The way to
test the power of will is to resolve
never to do a certain thing again that
has been done daily for years. Every
body has peculiar habit of some kind,
and the funny part of it is they do not
know it. The habit crops out in many
ways. 1t appears in the walk. method
! of speech, wearing clothes, sitting
| down, reading paper or book, sleep
ing, eating, and in many other things.
Many are harmless, and many are in
furious.
One of the most peculiar habits on
| record was that of Mary Preston, a beau
tiful young girl. who took the prize at
the Cooper Institute Art school for the
finest crayon sketch. She is highly ed
ucated, an expert musician, speaks sew
eral languages and moves in the best
society. No one would ever dream that
there was anything eccentric in her
composition, because she hid her pc
! culiar practice under the veil of secrecy.
She began it when she was little girl,
continued it through childhood, and only
| stopped when the surgeons knife got in
| Its fine work. Her habit was eating hair.
| 1t did not make any difference whose
| hair 1t was or what the color. Accord
ing to her own story, she could not have
been more than three years of age when
she began to chew the ends of her long
curls. Her hair was beautiful shade
| of auburn, sweet enough almost for any
one to eat; that is, if ones taste ran in
| that direction. Little Miss Preston
| nhaUQd off hnr nnric nd IfOxund nh
| G:outhfulS of hair with as much pleas
ure as the ordinary child would
A Piece of Candy.
No one knew anything about it.
| There were not any bad symptoms so
| any thing more than the ordinary sick
ness of childhood. 1t is hard to con-
| ceive where she could have got liking
| for hair, but she. had it, and it grew with
age like all other habits.
When she got old enough to think and
| to know better she tried TO break off the
hair diet. The longest that she ever
went without hair as regular stimu-
liant was when she cut her eye teeth,
| and then her jaws were too sore to
| chew. Hair does not slip down the
esophagus like raw oyster, as any one
will find out by trying 10 swallow even
confesses that she would have some
trouble in getting mouthful of hair to
pass the epiglottiS, but the difficulty
was easily overcome by mixing it with
zig or orange.
Miss Preston did not recognize the
vice in others by example. and her par
ents and school mates never knew what
she did when alone. She was ashamed
CT the habit. She did not rely on her
own hair to furnish a supply of the de-
licious dainty, but let her pin money go
for switches. She bought hair from
BARRIERS, housekeeping establishments
and dog fanciers under various pre-
lenses. so that she had change of diet,
and was not confined to the monotony
of plain
Everyday Human Hair.
She drew the line OIL the wool of the
colored man, but lambs wool was
luxury that she enjoyed in season with
as much relish as the ordinary citizen
does his lamb chop. How many pounds
of hair she ate from the time she began
until her twentieth year will never be
known. She has no idea, but says that
never day passed without her getting
away with large handful.
She became very i'll on her return
from Europe about year ago. Proba-
bly, foreign hair did not agree with her
cultivated taste. She had a severe gas
trio trouble, and all food that she took
was rejected almost as quickly as it was
swallowed. Her case puzzled the ply
SlclanS. There was no evidence Of
tunor, and the slightest sympto ms of
cancer could not be detected. The doc
tors believed that there was cancer of
the intestine, near the pyloric orifice,
which affected the action of the stomach
by sympathy. She was starving to
death, and to give her relief it was de-
cided by DR.. Arbuckle, the consulting
surgeon OF st. Luke's hospital, to make
an opening into the stomach from the
side, through which she could be fed.
After special course of tonic treat
ment she was placed upon the operating
table and given an an8sthetic.
The Encision
was made in the left side, about five
inches long, and the stomach and intes-
tines were exposed. The most careful
examination of the stomach and other
organs externally failed to show the
! slightest evidence of sareoma, and there
was nothing TO warrant the continuance
| of the operation. The stomach was en-
| larged somewhat, but nothing remarka-
bic. The wound was closed in the alb
| domen.
1t was evident afterward that there
| was some trouble with the stomach and
not with the inteStines. The patient
was losing strength and vitality every
day. Something had to be done Tor her.
! 1t was settled that there must be an
other operation, though for what pur-
| pose was not apparent. An inciSion
was made in the median line of the
| abdomen, and the walls were held apart
| with retractorS.
| The surgeon cautiously slit open the
| stomach, and a remarkable discovery
was made. The whole interior was
filled with long growth of hair, which
| grew from the bottom of the organ up
| ward. There was also lot of loose
| hair. Such condition had never been
seen before. and the surgeon did not
know what to do. The hair when
| touched had waving motion that was
very peculiar. Some of it was cut out,
| and on every hair there were a number
OF small bugs that seemed to
| be all legs. The bodies were blue
and heads red. 1t was an entirely
new addition to the bug tribe. All of
| the hair was cut from the stomach and
the bugs saved. Some was pulled out
by the roots, and produced an active
/ hemorrhage. An inciSion was made in
! the small intestines, but there was no
! hair there. The stomach was carefully
| sutured, the abdominal wound closed
and developments awaited.
/ The patient was greatly improved,
! and when the wound in the stomach
! was healed, was able to take nourish-
ment through the mouth. Her food di-
| gested we'll, and it was thought that she
| had been cured. She stopped eating
| hair. but the hair in the stomach did
not stop growing. When it became
long there was the same interference
with digestion as before, and there was
Another Operation.
| This time a radical cure was attempt
! cd. The abdomen was opened. the
/ ct,,I,n ,cil ont tho ar,firn lnnnfh aud III,