The Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester Telegram. — 1878-06-28 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

WANDERING NEEDLES.  The vagaries of needles which have been introduced in the body, and have escaped immediate removal, have in all ages attracted the attention of collectors of the marvellous in medicine. Hildanus related an instance of a woman who swallowed several pins, and pasted them six years afterwards ; but a more remarkable instance of prolonged detent on was lately recorded by Dr. Stevenson, of Detroit—that of a lady, aged 75, who last year passed, by the urethra, after some months' symptoms of vesical irritation, a pin which she had swallowed while picking her teeth with it in the year 1835-42 years previously. Occasional pain in the throat was the only immediate symptom, but in 1845 she was seized with severe gastric pain, which passed away, and she had no further symptoms until hxmaturia in 1876. This curious tolerance of such foreign bodies exhibited by the tissues is often observed in lunatic asylums. M. 6ilvy recorded some years ago the cage of a woman who had a penchant for pins and needles so strong that she made them, in effect, part of her daily diet, and, after her death, fourteen or fif teen hundred were removed from various parts of the body. Another case, almost as striking, has been recorded by Dr. Gillette—that of a girl in whom, from time to time, needles wece found beneath the skin, which they perforated, and were removed by the fingers or forceys. Concerning the way in which they had got into her system no information could be extracted from her. She was carefully watched, and in the course of eighteen months no less than 320 needles were extracted all being of the same size Most were black and oxhidised, but some had retained their polish. The majority were unbroken. They passed out of various parts of the body above the diaphragm at regular intervals, but in a sort of series, and always in the same direction. Most escaped in the region of the left nipple, and a few escaped in the arm, auxilla, thigh, temple, and cheek. Sometimes several passed out of the same opening. The largest number which escaped in a single day was 61. A curious phenomenon preceded the escape of each needle. For some hours the pain was severe, and there was considerable fever. She then felt a sharp pain, like lightning, in the tissues, and on looking at the place at which this pain had been felt, the head of the needle was generally found projecting. The needles invariably came out head foremost. No bleeding was oc _iasioned, and not the least trace of inflammation followed. The doctor in attendance extracted 318. They were sometimes held firmly, and seemed to be contained in a sort of indurated canal. It was conjectured that they had been swallowed with suicidal intentions; but on the other hand, the way in which the needles escaped in series, and their direction with the head outwards, suggested that they had been introduced through the skin. That little weight is to be attached to the place at which the needles escape as proof of their mode of introduction is evident from a ease recorded by Villars of a girl who swallowed a large number of pins and needles, and two years afterwards, during a period of nine months, two hundred passed out of the hand, arm, axilla, side or thorax, abdomen, and thigh, all on the left side. The pins, curiously enough, escaped more readily and with less pain than the needles. Many years ago a case was recorded by Dr. Otto of Copenhagen, and mentioned at the time in the :Lancet, in which 395 needles passed through the skin of an hysterical girl, who had probably swallowed them during an hysterical paroxysm; but these all emerged in the region 3 below thelevel of the diaphragm, and were collected in groups, which gave rise to inflammatory swellings of some size. One of thesk contained 100 needles. Quite recently Dr. Biggff described before the Society of Surgery of Dublin a case in which more than 300 needles were removed from the body of a woman who had died in consequence of their presence. It is very remarkable in how few of the cages the needles were the cause of death, and how slight an interference with function their pres.ence and movement cause. From time to time their detection by a magnetic needle is prop ised as a novelty; but, as Dr. Gillette reminds us, this method was employed by Smee nearly 40 years ago, and has often been adopted since. —Lancet.  A number of Jews in Berlin proposed to entertain L'ird Beaconsfield at a banquet, but he declined to attend. The schooner Eothen has sailed from New York for the Attic regions to search for relics of the Franklin expe.iition. The Shah of Persia has received an invitation to visit Spain during his stay in Europe, but is is not probable that he will do so. _ _ . . . . _  The Pope has written a letter of condolence to the Queen of Hanover. It is rumoured that this lady is about to become a Roman Catholic. The match between the Australian cricketers and the gentlemen of England resulted in an easy victory for the home team, who won easily by an innings and one TM]. _ .  The fortune left by the King of Hanover. which is now being "administered" by the German Government, is estimated at about £2,400,000. The Queen of Spain i. 4 seriously ill of gastric fever. A. medical consultation has been held, and her father has arrived in Madrid. The body of the Commander of the German ironclad Grosser Kurfurst, sunk off Folkestone, was brought into harbour on Wednesday. A reward of £lOO has been offered for its recovery. Some unpleasantness has arisen among the International Jury for the Fine AI tz in the Paris Exhibition. Out of the eight medals of honour to be distributed the jury, by a majority of one vote, accorded four of the medals to France, leaving only four for the rest of the world. The minority of the jury comprising Frenchmen as well as Englishmen, protested.