Year: 1878

A Story that may be Believed or Not, just ..' as the Reader Happens to Feel.

 The Cincinnati EnQ1Srer says In looking over hotel register in Chicago a reporter saw the name of prominent Southern physician whom he had for merly quite we'll known. He is 8 resi- dent of Southern capital. To detail the talk of the evening is certainly not the intention of this brief article. The desire is to call attention to a curious freak of nature, instanced in the person of young negro woman who died of an ailment that in it's ante-obit bearings bafded skill or science. The doctor is willing to vouch for the truth of his narration. CT am aware," said he, in relating the circumstances, ''that what am telling you seems contrary to reason, and would be reckoned by many, if not an absurdity, at least 8 phenomenon that need scarcely be credited. It was five years since that I was called up to attend bright mulatto woman, said to be suffering from cancer. I gave her my very best attention, and as the awful destroyer was but in the incipiency of its force, I cut it out, and succeeded in saving the woman's life. The wound healed, and to all appearances was unin- terfered with. Two years later the woman was one day seized with violent contort1ons, when she was apparently in the enjoyment of the very best of health, and fell to the floor, crying out that there was a needle piercing her heart. In a short time the pain subsided and she was immediately restored to her normal condition, experiencing no un- pleasant results from the incident. But the fits became more frequent, and two months from that day were of daily oc- culrtence. had been summoned, but I could not make out the peculiar disor- der. I found it was foreign to anything of the kind that had ever come under my notice as practitioner. I called in some brother professionals, and we held a long consultation, attempting to diag- nose the case. All our efforts were in vain. Finally, to make a long story short, the girl died in the midst of one of her paroxysms. It was decided to hold 8 post-mortem examination of the body, as it was believed there would be some interesting revelations. The girl had always complained of pain in the heart, though there was no evidence of heart disease. At the time of her first attack she said needle was penetrating her heart. We concluded, naturally enough, that the heart was in some man. ner the seat of the ailment. We &C., cordingly cut it out, and here is the remarkable part of the story. Running transversely through the upper right corner of the heart was flliform some thing, which, upon close examination, proved to be a coarse black hair. Trac- ing this with the utmost care we found that one end led into the lung of the unfortunate girl, while the other led up towards the armpit of the left side. What prompted me I do not know, but I looked to the old cancer wound, which was left of the left breast, nearly under the arm. I there found hair growing into the wound, It had grown out an inch above the place where the cancer had been, and In attending to that afhic- tion the hair had been inducted into the wound. It had, by some almost impos- sible process of nature, gone on growing towards the vitals of the woman until it pierced her heart and began coiling in her lungs, producing a hemorrhage of the latter. We took the hair out in three parts, and upon measurement it proved to be twenty three feet in length. I have written this astonishing case up, and design publishing it shortly, with several m edical disquisitions upon it from some of the ablest pens in the South." ..