Year: 1878




In looking over hotel register In
Chicago, a reporter saw the name 'f
prominent Southern physician whom he
had formerly quite well known. he Is
resident of Southern capital. To de-
tail the talk of the evening is certainly
not the intention of this brief article.
The desire is TO call attention to curl
ous freak of nature, instanced in the
person of young negro woman, who
died of an ailment that, in its anteobit
bearings, baffied the skill of science.
The doctor is willing to vouch for the
truth of his narration: 81 am aware, "
said he, in relating the circumstances,
" that what L am telling you seems
contrary to reason, and would be reck-
oned by many, if not an absurdity, at
least phenomenon that needs scarcely
be credited. 1t was five years since that
1 was called upon to attend bright
mulatto woman, said to be suffering
from cancer. gave her my very best
attention, and, as the awful destroyer
was but in the incipiency of its force,
cut it out, and succeeded in saving the
womar's life. The wound healed, and
to all appearances was uninterfered with.
Two years later the woman was one day
seized with violent contortions, when
she was apparently in tho enjoyment OF
the very best of health, and fell to the
floor crying out that there was needle
piercing her heart. In short time the
pain subsided and she was Immediately
restored to her normal condition, ex-
periencing no unpleasant results from
the incident. But the fits became more
frequent, and two months from that
day were of daily occurrence. L had
been summoned, but l could not make
out the peculiar disorder. found it
was foreign to anything of the kind that
had ever come under my notice as
practitioner. L called in some brother
professionals, and we held long con-
sultation, attempting to diagnose the
case. All our efforts were in vain. FL
nally, to make a long story short, the
girl died in the midst of one of her par
oxysms. 1t was decided to hold post
mortem examination of the body, as it
was believed there would be some inter
esting revelations. The girl had al
ways complained of pain in the heart,
though there were no evidences of heart





she said needle was penetrating her
heart. We concluded, naturally enough,
that the heart was in some manner the
seat of the ailment. We accordingly
cut it out, and here is the remarkable
part of the story: Running transversely
through the upper right corner of the
heart was fliform something which,
upon close examination, proved to be
coarse black hair. Tracing this with
the utmost care, we found that one end
led into the lung of the unfortunate
girl, while the other led up toward the
armpit of the left side. What prompted
me do not know, but 1 looked to the
old cancer wound, which was left of the
left breast nearly under the arm. /
there found hair growing into the
wound. 1t had grown out an inch above
the place where the cancer had been,
and in attending to that infiction the
hair had been inducted into the wound.
1t had, by some almost impossible
process of nature, gone on growing tow
ard the vitals of the woman until it
pierced her heart, and began coiling in
her lungs, producing hemorrhage of
the latter. We took the hair out in
three parts, and upon measurement it
proved to be twenty three feet in length
1 have written this astonishing case up,
and design publishing it shortly, with
several medical disquisitions upon it
from some of the ablest pens in the
South"