Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-07-23
FULL OF NEEDLES.
Over 300 Taken From the Body of q
GirI-Doctors Unable TO Explain
the Mystery.

SHARON, PA, July l5.--Out OF the
body of Melvina Morford, healthy,
rosy checked girl of 21, more than 800
needles have been taken within seven
years.
The girl is still healthy, her cheeks
are still rosy and there is not a par
ticle of the morbid in her temperament
or her disposition. The source of her
peculiar malady is mysterious. Week
after week and month after month
these needles protrude from her flesh,
as if they had lain there for many
years until they were developed
enough to creep out into the world.
The immediate suspicion of every
physician who has been consulted in
this case was that the girl had stuck
the needles into her own skin, actu-
ated by any one of a dozen hysterical
motives. Strange to say, however,
not one of these physicians held this
belief after the third or fourth visit.
When, after fruitless attempts to cure
the girl of this needle growing habit,
they were asked what they thought of
the case, they invaribly shook their
heads and answered.:
"We can make nothing of it.''
In the past week an attempt was
made to solve this mystery by means
of sciences latest aid-the Roentgen
rays. The result only complicated
matters further. They found her
flesh full of needles, and yet found no
cause for them.
Her father is dead, but her mother,
who is almost heartbroken over her
daughters affiiction, tells this story:
When her daughter was 15 years old,
while playing in the house one day
with some companions, she stepped
upon a paper of needles, a number of
which penetrated her flesh. Crying
with pain she ran to her mother, who
found one of the needles still protrud
ing from the foot. This she extracted
and Immediately sent for doctor to
take out the others. The doctor,
however, advised her to let them be as
they were, saying that the operation
of cutting them out might cause seri-
GUS Inflammation, while if they were
let alone they would probably soon
come out of their own accord. About
six months later she felt severe pains
in the calf of her right leg.
An examination showed that the
needles were working their way
through the skin and it required but
little exertion to draw them out. A
year later, while on visit to Ohio
with her mother, the girl felt shooting
pains in her right arm. The doctor,
upon squeezing the flesh in various
parts of her body, found that the girl
writhed in pain. Selecting the shouI-
der to begin with, he had little diff
Guilty in locating needle under the
skin, which he promptly removed.
From that date to this DIR. Burrows
has extracted over 800 needles from
this girls body.
The physicians have made numerous
atIcupts W eIaP hOI Ahpo O. SohiOonAoA
of duplicity, but as yet they have not
succeeded. They found that she was
right-handed and that she was ex-
ceedingly unskillful with her other
hand. Nevertheless the right forearm
at the elbow is almost covered with
scars of former wounds. Her friends
have advanced the theory that she
swallows the needles, but the physi-
clans declare that this is an impossi-
bility. To swallow 800 needles, they
say, would have killed any living ami
NAL.
The most plausible theory is that in
moments of mental alteration she
sticks the needles into herself, and
that these attacks of temporary in
sanity last long enough to enable the
pain to disappear. The girl would
then be totally unconscious of what
she had done.