REMARKABLE MEDICAL FEAT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2041, 24 August 1906, Page 1

REMARKABLE MEDICAL FEAT.

A little Melbourne' girl named May M'Donald, being blessed with an indulgent mother, was rewarded one recent evening- with a half-penny. May was told to "be a good girl and go fast asleep," and having got the money she became good in an instant.. Ho Mrs M'Donald said good night, and blew out the candle and went out of the room. May cuddled the coin for a few minutes, and ihen, leeling sleepy, .she decided to bank her money. Ho she put the half-pen-ny in her mouth, and promptly swallowed it. Then she began to fear that, the wealth was lo.sC, and fear becoming certainty, as it does with children and bogies, she raised the customary alarm. First, aid measures, from the injunction to "cough it up, darling," to back-slapping failed, and the parents wisely decided to get expert assistance. So May was taken to the .Melboiinn' Hospital. "I've dot a ha'-penny down my front, an' I tan't. buy lollies wiv it.," she informed the nurse, and an X ray photograph promptly located the coin in tlie oesophagus. According to the Age report, J)r Mackay then went, in search of the misappropriated funds with an .•(.■<■! i-i<- roin catcher. This little instrument consists of a hollow flexible tube, having at Its extremity two guarded wire hooks. At the top is an electric battery, with a • little bell attachment, and down the tube runs a wire connecting wit-h the battery. When the tube is passed down the throat, the wire, in coming into contact with the coin, completes a circuit iliat starts the bell ringing, and keeps it ringing till the lower edge of the >-oin is passed and the circuit broken. The operator then fellows that the hooks are in position to catch the lower edge of the coin, and the tube is withdrawn. The operation of relieving the child of her carefully concealed cash was performed with ease and certainty. The tube was gently pushed down, the bell began to ring, stopped, and the half-penny came up, sn ugly held by the 'guarded hooks, to the 'delight and relief both of the child and her parents.