Sentence:  In Chicago , some time ago , Mr. H. , age 27 , a diabetic since he was six , stopped using insulin because he had bought a `` magic spike '' - a glass tube about the size of a <WSD>pencil</WSD> filled with barium chloride worth a small fraction of a cent - sold by the Vrilium Company of Chicago for $ 306 as a cure-all . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a thin cylindrical pointed writing implement; a rod of marking substance encased in wood