Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-09
CURIOUS ACCIDENTS.
Occurrences known TO Doctors as
Having BefaI;en Human Beings.


they not been given to us upon the highest
| authority.
The case recently reported of a man who
was admitted to Bellevue Hospital whose
arm it was supposed had been fractured by
| an explosion, but instead of which eleven
| feet of lead wire was found by The sur
| geons, may be recalled.
The man, a machinist in the employ Of
| the East River Lead Company. was in
charge of a machine which converts molten
lead into wire. II is a steel box, into which
! the lead is poured, being then forced
! through an aperture one-eighth of an inch
! in diameter by a hydraulic pressure of
600 tons Reaching the air the lead be-
| comes hard and. in the form of wIre is
| wound on a big wheel.
This aperture had become clogged, and
| Seaman, the victim of this curious acci-
! dent. seized the projecting wire in his
! hands, intending to free the action OF the
machine, as he had done hundreds of
/ times on former occasions. by a sharp,
| strong pull.
| usual pull and jerk, when an explosion &C.
| CURED, and Seaman was hurled 10 the
| floor, unconscious.
Felt Little Pain
On the way to Bellevue Hospital Scanlan,
in the ambulance, recovered his senses,
and expressed himself as feeling all right,
with the exception of little soreness in
his left arm, at the elbow.
The swelling, which had developed very
| rapidly, made it impossible for ;he sur
SeonS TO make a thorough examination,
bat on the following day when this had
sufficiently subsided they did so. and decid-
ed that he had a compound fracture of
the bones Of the arm.
There was 10 external injury of the skin,
excepting a slight and tritiing confusion a
little above the wrist. 1t trivial
that the surgeons gave it no consideration,
/ h. .l1l 4
what felt like a detached piece OF bone.
Ether was administered, incision i,tade,
and to the amazement of those present,
| instead of a bone a piece of lead wire an
inch i'll length and one-eishts of an inch
in diameter was taken out.
Piece after piece Of the wire re-
moved, till finally the total length Of v ire
thus removed aggregated eleven feet, the
longest piece measuring two feet and the
shortest one-Qcarter of an inch. The wire
was found embedded under the muscles CT
the arm, and some OF 1t had become
WeGged in between the bones OF the lower
arm. To cap the climax, and most remark
able of all, there Was no fracture nor in
jury of the bones, and Seaman, as soon as
| the tearing of the muscles has healed, VIII
have as good an arm as ever.
Snake I'm Her Arm.
A very curious and almost incredible case
was that of woman in South Carolina
who had a live snake in her arm. This
physician in Charleston, and had he not
youched for ii 1 should not have given it
credence. When the woman, who is Of
prominent family, first had her attention
attracted to her arr, it was by a bow-slap-
ed welt not more than two inches long.
1t grew to q foot in length and large
a lead pencil.
In the London Lancet some years ago a
case was detailed of an idiot boy, from
whose body was extracted quantities Of
slate pencil, from one TO two and a lalf
inches long; bits Of stick pieces OF rag sud
fragments of wool. The boy speedily re-
covered.
Prof. Agnew tells of case Of an insane
woman in whose body was found after
death pair of suspenders. several skeins
of silk, three spools of cotton and TWO
roller banGageS.
Dr. Drewry OF the Virginia Lunatic -Asy-
Inn gives the details of very exTraordi-
nary case. The lunatic was large, robust
looking colored woman, forty-SiX years cd,
who for long time had suffered from
disorder that led the doctor to suspect the
presence of foreign substances in her body.
Astonishing as it may seem, Job lot
of things, weighing, after having been TAX
en- out, ninety-seven ounces, proved The
correctness of the doctors suspicious
1t was a remarkable collection, indeed,
ard embraced such delcacies as hits Of
stone glass, slate, brick. buttons, fruit
parings and clay. That the woman had
swallowed them was proven by investiga-
ton.
Spontaneous Combustion.
DIR. Clendenen, coroner of La Sale coun-
ty, Ill.,, relates a peculiar case of spon-
taneous combustion. He was telephoned to
go to Seneca, a village in the county, TO
hold an inquest on the bodies of Mir. and
Mrs. R., who were found dead in their
farm house On arrival he impaseied a
jury of the most intelligent citizens che Of
whom was physician.
The first thing that attracted special at
tention was the peculiar sickening odor
which pervadei everything in and about
the large frame farm house where the
deaths had occurred. Both the man and
the woman, and more especially the
man, were addicted to the eXcessi.e use
of whisky. The man was found lying dead
on the floor by his bed i'm the room l.ljoin-
ing the kitchen. In the kitchen all the
furniture was found in its usual place.
A tallow candle on the table, one-third
burned, appeared to have been eXtinguiSh-
ed by Mrs. r., as 1t was her custom to
be the last to retire. A hole found
burned through the kitchen floor about two
and one-half by three feet square.
Upon examining this opening in the floor
mass of cinders was discovered On The
ground beneath. Upon examining Them
they found the skull, the spinal bones Of
the neck and half of the spinal bones OF the
back, which had become reduced almost to
cinders They also found part of the thigh
bone and large part OF the hip bone, and
these also were almost burned to cinders.
The feet were found in the shoes, the
left one reduced to cinder and the shoe
partially calcined. The other foot aid
shoe We're reduced to a complete cinder.
The other parts of the body were reduced
to very light cinder. leaving no shape of
the former body. The clothing en-
tirely burned.
The woman had weighed $50 pounds. The
remains, however, after having been gath
cred together We're placed in box that
would hold less than bushe1. The entire
remains weighed twelve pounds.
The evidence disclosed the fact that the
woman had been a habitual driHker, had
drunk more than quart of whisky during
the previous day, and was intoxicated
when last seen alive, at o'clock at night.
1t appeared as if she had burned on the
floor without a struggle.
Why, however, the floor did not continue
to burn was a mystery. The pine joist
against which the remaining cinderS lay
was slightly charred. and no other evil
dence of blaze could be found. The skull
and hip bone were really the only evidence
by which 1t could be told that a human
body had been cremated there.
A very curious accident happened to
commercial traveller in Omaha who was
walking from the railroad station 10 his
hotel in a gale of wind. As he turned a
corner an English sparrow struck him in
tho faca IFS bill pierced Ills eyefaiI ard