Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [398]
he swallowed 14 of different sizes with the same result. Finally he attempted to gorge himself with 17 penknives, but this performance was followed by horrible pains and alarming abdominal symptoms. His excrement was black from iron. After death the cadaver was opened and 14 corroded knives were found in the stomach, some of the handles being partly digested; two were found in the pelvis and one in the abdominal cavity. Pare recalls the instance of a shepherd who suffered distressing symptoms after gulping a knife six inches long. Afterward the knife was abstracted from his groin. Fabricius Hildanus cites a somewhat similar case.
Early in the century there was a man known as the "Yankee knife-swallower," whose name was John Cummings, an American sailor, who had performed his feats in nearly all the ports of the world. One of his chief performances was swallowing a billiard ball. Poland mentions a man (possibly Cummings) who, in 1807, was admitted to Guy's Hospital with dyspeptic symptoms which he attributed to knife-swallowing. His story was discredited at first; but after his death, in March, 1809, there were 30 or 40 fragments of knives found in his stomach. One of the back-springs on a knife had transfixed the colon and rectum. In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1825 there is an account of a juggler who swallowed a knife which remained in his stomach and caused such intense symptoms that gastrotomy was advised; the patient, however, refused operation.
Drake reports a curious instance of polyphagia. The person described was a man of twenty-seven who pursued the vocation of a "sword-swallower." He had swallowed a gold watch and chain with a seal and key attached; at another time he swallowed 34 bullets and voided them by the anus. At Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in August, 1819, in one day and night he swallowed 19 pocket-knives and 41 copper cents. This man had commenced when a lad of fifteen by swallowing marbles, and soon afterward a small penknife. After his death his esophagus was found normal, but his stomach was so distended as to reach almost to the spine of the ilium, and knives were found in the stomach weighing one pound or more. In his exhibitions he allowed his spectators to hear the click of the knives and feel them as low down as the anterior superior spine of the ilium.
The present chief of the dangerous "profession" of sword-swallowing is Chevalier Cliquot, a French Canadian by birth, whose major trick is to swallow a real bayonet sword, weighted with a cross-bar and two 18-pound dumbbells. He can swallow without difficulty a 22-inch cavalry sword; formerly, in New York, he gave exhibitions of swallowing fourteen 19-inch bayonet swords at once. A negro, by the name of Jones, exhibiting not long since in Philadelphia, gave hourly exhibitions of his ability to swallow with impunity pieces of broken glass and china.
Foreign Bodies in the Alimentary Canal.--In the discussion of the foreign bodies that have been taken into the stomach and intestinal tract possibly the most interesting cases, although the least authentic, are those relating to living animals, such as fish, insects, or reptiles. It is particularly among the older writers that we find accounts of this nature. In the Ephemerides we read of a man who vomited a serpent that had crept into his mouth, and of another person who ejected a beetle that had gained entrance in a similar manner. From the same authority we find instances of the vomiting of live fish, mice, toads, and also of the passage by the anus of live snails and snakes. Frogs vomited are mentioned by Bartholinus, Dolaeus, Hellwigius, Lentilus, Salmuth, and others. Vege mentions a man who swallowed a young chicken whole. Paullini speaks of a person who, after great pain, vomited a mouse which he had swallowed. Borellus, Bartholinus, Thoner, and Viridet, are among the older authorities mentioning persons who swallowed toads. Hippocrates speaks of asphyxia from a serpent which had crawled into the mouth.
Borellus states that he knew a case of a person who vomited a salamander.
Early in the century there was a man known as the "Yankee knife-swallower," whose name was John Cummings, an American sailor, who had performed his feats in nearly all the ports of the world. One of his chief performances was swallowing a billiard ball. Poland mentions a man (possibly Cummings) who, in 1807, was admitted to Guy's Hospital with dyspeptic symptoms which he attributed to knife-swallowing. His story was discredited at first; but after his death, in March, 1809, there were 30 or 40 fragments of knives found in his stomach. One of the back-springs on a knife had transfixed the colon and rectum. In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1825 there is an account of a juggler who swallowed a knife which remained in his stomach and caused such intense symptoms that gastrotomy was advised; the patient, however, refused operation.
Drake reports a curious instance of polyphagia. The person described was a man of twenty-seven who pursued the vocation of a "sword-swallower." He had swallowed a gold watch and chain with a seal and key attached; at another time he swallowed 34 bullets and voided them by the anus. At Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in August, 1819, in one day and night he swallowed 19 pocket-knives and 41 copper cents. This man had commenced when a lad of fifteen by swallowing marbles, and soon afterward a small penknife. After his death his esophagus was found normal, but his stomach was so distended as to reach almost to the spine of the ilium, and knives were found in the stomach weighing one pound or more. In his exhibitions he allowed his spectators to hear the click of the knives and feel them as low down as the anterior superior spine of the ilium.
The present chief of the dangerous "profession" of sword-swallowing is Chevalier Cliquot, a French Canadian by birth, whose major trick is to swallow a real bayonet sword, weighted with a cross-bar and two 18-pound dumbbells. He can swallow without difficulty a 22-inch cavalry sword; formerly, in New York, he gave exhibitions of swallowing fourteen 19-inch bayonet swords at once. A negro, by the name of Jones, exhibiting not long since in Philadelphia, gave hourly exhibitions of his ability to swallow with impunity pieces of broken glass and china.
Foreign Bodies in the Alimentary Canal.--In the discussion of the foreign bodies that have been taken into the stomach and intestinal tract possibly the most interesting cases, although the least authentic, are those relating to living animals, such as fish, insects, or reptiles. It is particularly among the older writers that we find accounts of this nature. In the Ephemerides we read of a man who vomited a serpent that had crept into his mouth, and of another person who ejected a beetle that had gained entrance in a similar manner. From the same authority we find instances of the vomiting of live fish, mice, toads, and also of the passage by the anus of live snails and snakes. Frogs vomited are mentioned by Bartholinus, Dolaeus, Hellwigius, Lentilus, Salmuth, and others. Vege mentions a man who swallowed a young chicken whole. Paullini speaks of a person who, after great pain, vomited a mouse which he had swallowed. Borellus, Bartholinus, Thoner, and Viridet, are among the older authorities mentioning persons who swallowed toads. Hippocrates speaks of asphyxia from a serpent which had crawled into the mouth.
Borellus states that he knew a case of a person who vomited a salamander.