The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1896-01-21
FULL OF NEEDLES.
THE MARVELLOUS CASE OF A
PENNSYLVANIA GIRL.
More Than 500 Needles Taken Fro IN
Her Body by Doctors I'm Three
transformations StilI
Going On.
.ROM the body of Melyina Nor

/ the past three years over 500 needles
and fragments of needles. How many
are still imbeded in her flesh they do
not pretend to say, but operations to
remove the sharp pieces of steel are
still going on.
This story is true in every detail.
The surgeons say it is without pre-
cedent for the extraordinary number
/ of needles her body has contained.
/ There are several well-known cases of
] woman carrying needle in her body
for years, and the needle has kept
! constantly moving from one limb to
the other. When, not long ago, the
surgeons cut ont from twenty to forty
more needles they thought their task
was finished. But it seems not.
If, as some surgeons contend, the
case is one of voluntary self-tortUre,
then the patient, fragile young girl,
! possesses wonderful endurance and n
stoical indifference to pain which far
| surpasses that of the New Mexica In
| dian priests, who, once IA year, in tue
performance of religious penance,
| hagellate themselves with sharp cacti
branches, filling their backs with
thorns, which are afterwards drawn
out.
The girl, however, strenuously de.
MES that she fills her skin with
needles. She says that she has no
idea where they come from. Her
| parents corroborate her. They have
even kept close watch over her move
ments to detect, if possible, whether
the physicians theories are correct,
but they say they have learned moth
/ ing.
The operations for the removal of
the steel pieces are exceedingly pain
full and cause the girl to writhe under
the cut of the surgeons knife. She
is, in fact, unusually sensitive to pain.
| This is the story tie parents tell:
In July, 1891, when the girl was fif-
teen years of age, she was playing with
some companions around the house
when she stepped on paper of
needles, number of which penetrat-
ed her flesh. She ran to her mother,
who found one of the needles protrud-
ing from the foot This was extract.
| ed, and nothing further was thought
about the matter until two months
later, when the girl began to suffer
severe pains in the calf of the right
leg.
An examination showed that two
needles were working through the
skin, and in time they we're pulled
! out without much trouble. The
needles were both somewhat rusted.
The family agreed that the needles
had worked their way from the foot
upward, and did not report the case
| to physician.
In the spring of 1892, while the
mother and daughter were visiting in
| Ohio, the girl developed severe pain
in the right side. A physician was
! called, and to his intense surprise he
! found what appeared to be n mass of
needles under the skin. Seven were
taken out before the skin healed over.
! Since that time the girl has never been
free from pain.
In December, 1898, the case was
! given to DR.. L. L. A. Burrows, of
Sharon. He estimates that he has re-
moved from the girls flesh over eight
hundred needles, many of them of
large size, and all rusted and corroded,
showing that they had been in the
! girls body for n long time. The doc
/ tor says the operations have averaged
about one month since he has had
charge of the case.
The greater number of needles have
been drawn from the girls right arm,
| Just below the elbow. The arm is
SCARED from the frequent cutting,
! and, as the needles are often imbed-
ded more than inch under the sur
face, it requires considerable force to
extract them. They appear in
| punches, and. their position is such
that 1t seems impossible that they
have been forced into the flesh from
| the outside. The highest number
ever removed at one time was fifty
seven, and this was IN the presence Of
several Sharon physicians and citi-
( zens, who were called in to verify
| what had been previously regarded as
an incredible story.
The doctors put the girl through a
severe examination, hoping to catch
her in n falsehood and thus to force n
. confession from her. They failed,
however, TO confuse her in the least.
The needles have recently com
mcnced TO come through tine skin on
the right hand, which strengthens the
/ girls statement that she does not her
/ self push them in. In the operations
the girl does not take an au@sthetic.
and consequently undergoes what the
doctors say is pure torture. She APP
pears TO be in normal strength aud
| performs her share of household duties
I'm her fathers home. The family are
| in humble circumstances.
The physicians say that the corrodcd
| appearance of some of the needles is
/ IN indication that they have been in
the body for months before being ex-
/ tracted. ! seems impossible, the girl
/ deliberately fills her skin with them,
as the pain would be too great. She
says herself that the operations she
undergoes at times require oil the for
| titude she possesses, and that she
would not voluntarily add TO the pain
by doing anything to increase the
work of the surgeons
Some OF tho girls friends attempt
/ to explain the case by saying that she
swallows the needles. Physicians say
| that no one could survive after put
ting into the stomach ono.tenth tho
number that nave already come to the